The present textbook addresses the reader with materials containing legislative acts of the Syrian Arab Republic on economic topics. As translated into Russian for the first time, most of them have newly entered scientific and educational domain. The textbook is applicable for academic curriculums and higher education modules at bachelor’s, specialist’s, and master’s levels in oriental studies, management, economics, and law. It meets the Federal State Education Standards for Higher Education of the Russian Federation. The textbook could be useful for a wide range of students, scholars, experts, and practitioners.

The article reviews importance of seeking new formats and modalities (political-military, social, economic, and ideological) to achieve a long-term solution to the Syrian conflict. Until now, Russia remaining a major ally of official Damascus has not fully used its potential to create favorable conditions for the post-conflict recovery of Syria. By the Syrian case, the author puts forward a hypothesis about genesis of the “security matrix” which is embodied by regiments of the Russian military police deployed across the country. In addition to routine security functions, those people – often at risk to their lives – have been performing peacekeeping, humanitarian, economic, and diplomatic tasks. Such activities including facilitation of local reconciliations create new post-conflict realities of social life. Absence of a notion of the “security matrix” in political economy and diplomacy explains the novelty of the present research. The article also contains an attempt to present both a schematic image and description of the “security matrix” as a pattern of behavior whereas multiple functions carried out by the Russian military contribute to launching national mini-dialogues, strengthening public order and security as well as to improving the humanitarian and economic situation. A SWOT-analysis serves as the optimal proof of the mentioned hypothesis. In conclusion, the author outlines continued dependency of the “security matrix” on internal and external factors. At the same time, he speaks about perspective use of the Syrian experience in formulating Russian peace-building strategies to resolve other conflicts. This in turn might contribute to strengthening Russia’s role in international relations.

The crisis in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia have been causing severe damage to the food security at global, regional, and national levels. The Arab world has not been an exemption: disruption of logistic chains in the Black Sea region and increasing volatility of grain prices, aggravated by demographic boom, the global warming, and water deficit, generate high risks of producing new hunger hotspots and the “Arab Spring 2.0.”. Meanwhile, the United States and its allies are trying to benefit from growing challenges in the Middle East and North Africa, employing of the “carrot and stick” tactics. While the compromise “grain deal” has been temporarily extended, it does not solve the problem, but only somewhat alleviates it. However, despite all the difficulties and the deep differences between Western and Russian interests, including in this region, Russia can even more significantly contribute to enhancing food security of the Arab countries, acting on the basis of equal and mutually beneficial cooperation with the Arab world.

The article presents the materials of a scientific discussion related to the topic of post-conflict settlement in the Arab world, organized by the National Communications Development Research Institution together with the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The authors analyze theoretical models and specific cases of settlement in the regions of the Middle East, North Africa, the Arab world and related challenges. The humanitarian aspect of post-conflict political settlement and economic reconstruction, which has been associated with a number of challenges in recent years, is considered.

The article contains a country case study of the pre-conflict Syrian Arab Republic of the 2000s illuminating the “low-level equilibrium trap.” This universal theoretical notion was developed in the 1950s by R. Nelson for developing countries. It monitors dynamics in the balance between insufficient savings, investments, relatively low income per capita, and high rates of demographic growth. The relevant imbalances largely caused the failure of attempts carried out in the 2000s by the Syrian authorities to secure a quick transfer from the “Socialist heritage” to the socially oriented market economy. The latter was viewed through the lenses of the “Modern Syria” national concept as the Syrian authorities were de-facto trying to copy the experiences of the People’s Republic of China. In pre-conflict Syria, by hampering sustainable development, the above-mentioned “stalemated balance,” i. e. stagnation, could be compared with other challenges for the Syrian economy like the “poverty trap” along with the “security trap” which emerged after the outbreak of the conflict. Examining for the first time the Syrian version of the “low-level equilibrium trap” together with the dichotomy of premises has acquired practical importance in terms of understanding the genuine roots of the Syrian conflict. It allows the author to acknowledge that the conflict itself has been inspired not by hostile activities of foreign actors only but by domestic drivers as well. The author analyzes the “strength” as a key feature of the “low-level equilibrium trap” which determines perspectives of exiting it with the impact of multiple factors and comparing Syria with neighboring countries. The problematic nature of the above-mentioned feature is likely to be kept after the start of the full-scale post-conflict reconstruction with the Syrians returning to a peaceful life. Finding an exit from the “low-level equilibrium trap” to ensure the effectiveness of the national economy presents an imperative.