Roberts has written an informal, opinionated account of the Ba'th Party from the 1940s to the present. While a large portion of his material on the first two decades comes straight from the work of such scholars as Devlin, Ma'oz, Rabinovich, and van Dam, the author's extensive first-hand experience as British ambassador to both Syria and Lebanon informs his analysis of the last quarter-century, and the result is valuable indeed. Roberts's central concern is the transformation of the Ba'th from a party of lively political debate and chaotic evolution to the static but solid pillar of a militarized state. He shows that as the soldiers took over and "the ideological pendulum stopped swinging," other problems rose to the surface, pre-eminently the sectarian confrontation between 'Alawis and Sunnis.
In response, the regime adopted the "powerful and active political myth" of Greater Syria, a goal Roberts sees as "the only consistent strand" in recent Syrian foreign policy. As a corollary, he concludes that the Damascus government gains from the existence and policies of Israel. "If by chance the pressures on Israel (such as inflation, reverse migration and above all the demographic time-bomb of the Arab population within Israeli territory) were to drive it to seek peace by concession, the consequences for Syria could be adverse."
