In this Majlis, Dara Conduit will discuss her new book The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, (Cambridge University Press, August 2019). The book examines the experiences of the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 2011 Syrian uprising. The Brotherhood had played a role in every iteration of Syrian politics since the country gained independence in 1946, and was the most prominent opposition group in Syria on the eve of the 2011 uprising. But when unrest broke out in March 2011, few Brotherhood flags and slogans were to be found within the burgeoning protest movement. Drawing on extensive primary research including interviews with Brotherhood members, the book looks to the group's history to understand why it failed to capitalise on this advantage as the conflict unfolded, addressing significant gaps in accounts of the group's past to assess whether its reputation for violence and dogmatism is justified. In doing so, Conduit reveals a party that was neither as violent nor as undemocratic as expected, but whose potential to stage a long-awaited comeback was hampered by the shadow of its own history.

Dr Dara Conduit is an Associate Research Fellow at Deakin University, where she works on authoritarianism and oppositions, with a regional focus on the Middle East. Her work has been published in journals including the Journal of Contemporary China, British Journal of Middle East Studies, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism and the Middle East Journal and her book The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria was released by Cambridge University Press in 2019. She holds a PhD from Monash University, a M.Litt from the University of St. Andrews, was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge in 2015 and has provided advice to the UNOHCHR’s Working Group on Mercenaries.