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Sectarian Framing in the Syrian Civil War

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  • Daniel Corstange
  • Erin A. York

Abstract

How do civilians respond to civil war narratives? Do they react to ethnic frames more strongly than to alternatives? Governments and rebels battle for hearts and minds as well as strategic terrain, and winning the narrative war can shift legitimacy, popular support, and material resources to the sympathetically framed side. We examine the effect of one‐sided and competing war discourses on ordinary people's understandings of the Syrian civil war—a conflict with multiple narratives, but which has become more communal over time. We conduct a framing experiment with a representative sample of Syrian refugees in Lebanon in which we vary the narrative that describes the reasons for the conflict. We find that sectarian explanations, framed in isolation, strongly increase the importance government supporters place on fighting. When counterframed against competing narratives, however, the rallying effect of sectarianism drops and vanishes.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Corstange & Erin A. York, 2018. "Sectarian Framing in the Syrian Civil War," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(2), pages 441-455, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:62:y:2018:i:2:p:441-455
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12348
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    Cited by:

    1. Allison Carnegie & Kimberly Howe & Adam Lichtenheld & Dipali Mukhopadhyay, 2022. "The effects of foreign aid on rebel governance: Evidence from a large‐scale US aid program in Syria," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 41-66, March.

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