This article examines the arbitrary and oftentimes violent nature of loyalty and belonging in the case of Syria but with applicability to other authoritarian or high-surveillance contexts. It shows how the new “settlement of status” process is an extension of the governmentality of violence used by the Syrian regime to delineate loyal citizens from traitors. However, the article argues that this process is Janus-faced and actually serves to undermine the regime in the long run by destabilizing its surety around who is considered loyal and who is a potential threat. This uncertainty has the potential to sow the seeds for greater dissent and with it, act as one possible catalyst for the regime's eventual collapse. The Syrian case offers broader insights into the various social and political permutations of a citizen's relationship to the state and how that relationship can be impacted over time by the state's use of fear and violence as mechanisms for social control.

中文翻译：

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恐惧与暴力、忠诚与叛国：叙利亚地位的解决

本文探讨了在叙利亚的情况下忠诚和归属感的任意性和时常暴力的性质，但适用于其他专制或高度监视的环境。它显示了新的“地位解决”程序如何成为叙利亚政权用来区分忠诚公民和叛徒的暴力治理的延伸。然而，这篇文章认为，这个过程是两面派，从长远来看实际上会破坏该政权，因为它会动摇它对谁被认为是忠诚的、谁是潜在威胁的保证。这种不确定性有可能为更大的异议播下种子，并可能成为该政权最终崩溃的催化剂。叙利亚案例提供了对公民的各种社会和政治排列的更广泛见解。