The Implications of Social Theory of Fear on the Alawi Section in the Syria Civil conflict

Abstract: This research question is whether the social and political fear was used in the Syrian case to mobilize the Alawi minority and how. Therefore, this research is deductive research directed toward testing how applicable is the social theory of fear in the Syrian conflict. Whereas the Syrian regime has highly relied on the Alawi minority to sustain its existence in power. This in turn resulted in high casualties within the minority and bad living conditions for both the minority and the country total. However, this did not lead the regime to lose the support of the Alawis. Much of the research made on the topic presented the Alawi minority as the regime loyalists because of being privileged. This research gives a different view on the reasons which led this specific minority to support the Syrian regime. Where it presents a different approach to study the case through qualitative interviewing of a purposive sample, then analyzing the data through the narrative analysis method. The findings of this research fill the research gap presented by simply claiming Alawis are loyalists for being privileged. On the contrary, this research denies this assumption and presents findings that prove the usage of the social fear mechanism and in what method. This research does not only contribute to filling the gap in the existing research, but also to the theory of social fear applying to a further dimension than the author had explained. When it comes to the field of conflict studies, the research presents the mechanism that caused this conflict to become protracted and bloody. Those mechanisms if early detected may help avoid conflicts of the same nature in the future.