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Initially, the Syrian uprising was a non-violent movement calling for democratization. Why did it descend into political violence and civil war? Referring to the debates over the non-violent resistance paradigm, civil wars and external intervention, as well as state failure, Raymond Hinnebusch argues that to find answers, we need to look at the interaction of internal rebellion and external intervention. More specifically, the lecture discusses the state-building flaws that made the Assad regime vulnerable to the uprising; why mass anti-regime protests led neither to democratic transition, nor to revolution from below, but to armed civil war; and also how external intervention helped tip the conflict into a version of "new wars" and generated a failed state in which the regime lost territorial control of the country. This, in turn, set off "competitive regime re-formation" in the Syrian space. Professor Raymond Hinnebusch, Politikwissenschaftler; Professor für Internationale Beziehungen und die Politik des Mittleren Osten, University of St. Andrews Moderation: Dr. Miriam M. Müller (Joint PhD), Politik- und Islamwissenschaftlerin; Wissenschaftlerin in der Forschungsgruppe Makrogewalt im Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung. Ort: Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, Mittelweg 36, 20148 Hamburg Beginn: 19 Uhr (Einlass ab 18.30 Uhr) Eintritt: frei