As part of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy's speaker series, George Mason University scholar Bassam Haddad explained the roots and dynamics of the tragic Syrian uprising, with particular attention to its background and to the recent Russian intervention, in a talk dated January 22, 2016. After nearly five years since the start of the uprising, Syria finds itself divided and embattled, with no end in sight. More significantly, more than half of the Syrian population is displaced and the death toll surpassed 300,000 by all counts. The Syrian tragedy persists and, more than any other case of mass uprising in the region, continues to be shrouded in political power-plays and contradictions at the local, regional, and international levels, Haddad explained.