Fabrice Balanche (born November 3, 1969 in
Belfort
Belfort (; archaic german: Beffert/Beffort) is a city in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Northeastern France, situated between Lyon and Strasbourg, approximately from the France–Switzerland border. It is the prefecture of the Territoir ...
,
France) is a
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" ...
and specialist in the
political geography
Political geography is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. Conventionally, for the purposes of analysis, po ...
of
Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq and the
Middle East in general.
Biography
In 2000, he defended his thesis The Alaouites, space and power in the Syrian coastal region: an ambiguous national integration, which was taken up and published in 2006 under the title The Alaouite region and the Syrian power.
He has a Doctorate in political geography
from the University of Tours (2000)
and an associate in geography.
He lived for ten years between Lebanon and Syria, countries which represent his main fields of study
since 1990.
His field of research focuses on the interaction between power, community and territory.
On November 29, 2013, he obtained the accreditation to direct research on the theme: The community factor in the analysis of Syrian and Lebanese space.
He is a lecturer
in geography, authorized to supervise research, assistant professor of geography and director of research at the University of Lyon 2,
where he headed the Research Group on the Mediterranean and the Middle East (GREMMO ) until the end of 2015, the date of cessation of its activities.
In 2012, he published the Atlas of the Arab Middle East, a work devoted to the four states of
Bilad al-Sham
Bilad al-Sham ( ar, بِلَاد الشَّام, Bilād al-Shām), often referred to as Islamic Syria or simply Syria in English-language sources, was a province of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates. It roughly correspond ...
which, according to Confluences Méditerranée, brings "in an editorial landscape already provided (...) a real added value" notably thanks to its “original and educational” cartography.
In 2015, Fabrice Balanche decided to leave Lyon and emigrate to the
United States where he was a guest researcher at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank
from 2015 to 2017, then at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
The Atlas of the Arab Near East was published in English by Brill under the title Atlas of the Near East: State Formation and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1918–2010. In February 2018, Fabrice Balanche published a book on the Syrian conflict in English
''Sectarianism in Syria's Civil War'', in which he explains the community aspects of the war in Syria.
Publications
Books
*The Alaouite region and the Syrian power, editor Karthala, 2006, 313 p. ( )
''Atlas of the Arabic Near East'' Paris-Sorbonne University Press RFI, 2012, 135 p. ( )
*Geopolitics of the Middle East, La Documentation française, Documentation photographique, Paris, 2014
*Atlas of the Near East: State Formation and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1918–2010, Brill, Amsterdam, 2017
''Sectarianism in Syria's Civil War'', Washington Institute, 2018.
Collective works
''Beyrouth entre mondialisation et crise syrienne''conference of 23 October 2013 at Saint-Joseph University of Beirut
Géosphères (Annales Géographie, Vol 33-34, 2012-2013 in collaboration with Liliane Buccianti-Barakat.
An Arab Spring?: conference, Brest, 25–27 January 2012 / the Geopolitics of Brest; under the direction of Linda Gardelle; with contributions from Fabrice Balanche, Bernard Botiveau, Assia Boutaleb ... et al. / Paris: L'Harmattan, 2013.
Articles
"The die is cast: the Kurds cross the Euphrates", in Syria: a hope? Les Cahiers de l'Orient n ° 122, spring 2016.
The battle of Aleppo is the center of the Syrian chessboard, February 5, 2016, Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The die is cast, the Kurds cross the Euphrates, January 5, 2016, Washington Institute for the Near East Policy.
The Alawi community and the Syrian crisis, Middle East Institute, May 14, 2015.
Syria: civil war and the internationalization of the conflict, Eurorient, n ° 42, 2013.
Geography of the Syrian revolt, Outre Terre, n ° 27, September 2011.
Clientelism, communitarianism and territorial fragmentation in Syria, A Contrario, March 2009.
Syria, article on the Encyclopedia Universalis (collective writing)
Reception
He is regularly quoted in the written press on the subject of Syria in order to present his methods of mapping the Syrian civil war and to express his point of view on the situation.
He is recognized and named as an expert on the issues of development of the Middle East and the Syrian crisis
and as "one of the leading French experts on Syria."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balanche, Fabrice
1969 births
Living people
French geographers
French political scientists
People from Belfort
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
University of Tours alumni
20th-century French people
21st-century French people