Conclusion: Exposing Patterns of Sectarianization

In this concluding chapter we deploy the framework from chapter one to map the complex relations uncovered in the empirical chapters between primordial identity composition, socio-economic and institutional context, and agency as these affect the extent of sectarianization in the Syrian conflict. We first use the framework to organize comparisons across space and time in a search for general patterns or regularities, summarizing the evidence in the chapters regarding the variation among cases and the factors that explain this. Then we compare some strategic cases which enable us to differentiate the varying weights of these factors. We seek not only to show how insurgency and civil war was accompanied by, produced by, or produced sectarianization; but also how social structural context--political institutions and the agency of the rival sides--diluted or crosscut sectarian identities--in order to produce variable outcomes across communities and regions inside Syria. This goes far to explain why the conflict has seemingly ending in stalemate rather than victory for the opposition--in spite of the theoretical potential of sectarian polarization to drive a majority-Sunni mass revolution against a minority-dominated regime.