{"id":154,"date":"2026-01-05T09:53:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T09:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/?p=154"},"modified":"2026-01-05T09:53:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T09:53:30","slug":"the-fragile-security-situation-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/?p=154","title":{"rendered":"The fragile security situation in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Periodic clashes between hashtag government forces and the hashtag SDF are yet another reminder of how fragile Syria\u2019s hashtag security landscape remains\u2014despite the <a><\/a>much-touted 10 March agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I argued, meaningful integration was never likely to happen. Over the past year, President Ahmad al-Sharaa\u2019s approach has relied on co-optation, dilution, and absorption. While re-flagging and absorption may have worked temporarily with parts of the hashtag SNA, the hashtag SDF has proven a different case altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These clashes should also serve as a wake-up call to Western and regional partners involved in mediation and security sector reform (hashtag SSR). Too often, current security approaches overlook or actively sideline deep structural and institutional gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Integration must be understood as both political and technical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Politically, military integration cannot be treated as a stand-alone process. It must be embedded within a broader political framework, including revisiting the constitutional declaration. This should go hand in hand with genuine army professionalisation and a careful rebalancing of internal power dynamics among factions, particularly those outside the original HTS core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Technically, the new Syrian army requires clear professional standardisation: transparent systems for promotions and demotions, credible incentive structures, and equitable benefits. Without this, integration risks remaining cosmetic and ultimately reversible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without this professionalism in the army, Sharaa risks the spillover from already \u201cintegrated groups\u201d specially if concessions were given to SDF and perceived by other integrated groups as favouritism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, hashtag SSR in hashtag Syria will fail if it continues to prioritise short-term containment over long-term institutional coherence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mohamad Nasab<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dutch-Arab Center for Strategic Studies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Periodic clashes between hashtag government forces and the hashtag SDF are yet another reminder of how fragile Syria\u2019s hashtag security landscape remains\u2014despite the much-touted 10 March agreement. . As I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-middle-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlar-mijndomein.co.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}