Shabiha in Syria, 2021-2022

In order to answer the broader question about the reasons behind authoritarian regimes’ survival or demise in the face of popular protest primary data collection via interviews has been collected and secondary sources i.e. newspaper articles have been analysed. The aim of the project was achieved by comparing the use of state-sponsored militias, shabiha and titushky, by the regimes of Bashar Al-Assad and Viktor Yanukovych in Syria and Ukraine respectively. It emerges that authoritarian regimes are more likely to survive when they engage in brutal, systematic repression through these actors of repression; when these actors of repression have more complex incentives than simply being thugs for hire, while the national and local elites are more reliable sources of state sponsored militias’ support.