Throughout the Syrian revolution, the U.S. has been playing a large role in supporting civil resistance and promoting the role of civil society in Syria. The U.S. State Department’s Office of Syrian Opposition Support was thus created to give aid to the opposition activists. This organization promotes non-violent, civil ways of avoiding and dealing with conflict in Syria. I was reading an article about how Maria Stephan, a member of the State Department, has been meeting with activists in Istanbul in order to train and organize civil resistance. She focuses specifically on civil resistance, media production, promoting anti-sectarian thought, and avoiding communications monitoring. Even with the continued violence and instability in Syria, I thought that it was interesting that this state department member was beginning civil society “workshops” overseas to counter the violence. I would tend to think these efforts would begin once Assad has fallen from power, and a new power was installed. I’m not sure if these efforts will be successful, especially because ending the violence seems to be the main concern in Syria as of right now. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to track the progress of the State Departments efforts in creating these workshops for civilians to improve the quality of life during, and after the Syrian revolution.
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