Hayat Alvi, PhD., is an Associate Professor (civilian) in the National Security Affairs Department at the US Naval War College. She has served as the Director of International Studies at Arcadia University, and she taught political science at the American University in Cairo, Egypt (2001-2005). Dr. Alvi spent a year in Damascus, Syria, as a Fulbright Fellow (1993-1994). She is proficient in Arabic and Urdu.
Dr. Alvi's specializations include International Relations, Political Economy, Security and Strategic Studies, Terrorism Studies, Conflict Resolution, Genocide Studies, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and South Asian Studies. She has published numerous books, articles, and chapters, including her latest books, The Political Economy and Islam of the Middle East: The Case of Tunisia (Palgrave, 2019); and, Nonviolent Activism in Islam: The Message of Abul Kalam Azad (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).
Dr. Alvi's presentation title will be The Geopolitics of Regime Change in Syria.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has just been removed from power and fled to Moscow with his family. Why did this happen when the Assad regime seemed to be solidly in place despite the civil war that broke out in 2011? The answer encompasses numerous non-state actors' militias operating in and around Syria since the war started, and the nuances of geopolitics in the region as well as the involvement of international actors like the United States, Russia, and the EU. The Levant region of the Middle East contains complex sectarian, geographic, political, economic, demographic, and sociocultural dynamics. All of these factors have contributed to the brutal dictatorship of the Assad regime, its longevity, the politics of identity and ideologies (secular and religious), and the regime's ultimate downfall. This discussion explores these dynamics and their implications.
