Çiğdem Görgün Akgül

As we observe and reflect on the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Syrian civil war, the literature helps us make sense of the past, present, and future of the conflict with its surrounding dynamics. The books we review in this article constitute a part of a collective scholarly effort to explain and understand the worst crisis of the century. It is with the help of these books that we have a chance to have a scholarly discussion about the Syrian crisis. Both Abhyankar’s Syria: A Tragedy of Pivotal State and Rabinovitch and Valensi’s Syria: A Requiem are explanatory explanations written by practitioners and researchers with a realist approach. Vignal’s account in Wartorn: The Unmaking of Syria, on the other hand, is more on the social side of the spectrum with her thorough analysis of events with a rather humanitarian tone.

The author unpacks the important relationship among socio-economic development, local capacity, and better governance in the case of Türkiye. However, he leaves it open whether the situation observed in Türkiye is compatible with other countries or not. Nevertheless, the effort to put these complex and overlapping themes into an appropriate order should be appreciated. This study pro[1]vides a reliable reference for academics in the field. In addition to its academic value, Decentralization and Governance Capacity provides a useful reference for policymakers and bureaucrats interested in this subject.