Recent clashes and violent confrontations between the Druze community and Arab Bedouin tribes in southern Syria have drawn renewed attention to this volatile region. These developments have not only highlighted deep-sea- ted tensions within Syria’s complex social fabric but have also triggered a new internal crisis in a country already struggling to redefine itself in the aftermath of a prolonged civil war. However, it would be misleading to frame this crisis merely as a sectarian dispute. Instead, it must be un- derstood within a broader regional context, where exter- nal actors—most notably Israel—have actively intervened or exploited local unrest to serve their strategic interests.
This transformation of a localised intercommunal conflict into a regional issue is not an entirely new phenomenon. The “Druze question” has long transcended Syria’s national borders and evolved into a historically rooted geopolitical concern. As such, interpreting the current Druze–Arab Be- douin conflict merely through the lens of contemporary sectarianism risks obscuring the deeper historical, politi- cal, and regional dimensions of the issue.
To properly understand the roots of this conflict, one must examine the legacy of the post-colonial period in the Le- vant, a time during which the Druze identity and territorial presence became entangled in broader regional rivalries and shifting power dynamics. Throughout history, various foreign powers have sought to manipulate Druze-related tensions as part of a larger strategic calculus, turning the community into a pawn on the regional geopolitical chess- board. Therefore, this study aims to move beyond simp- listic sectarian explanations by situating the Druze issue within its historical and geopolitical context, revealing it as a multifaceted problem shaped by both internal dynamics and enduring external interventions.
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