Questions are growing about the fate of President Bashar Assad’s regime. One possibility is the creation of a breakaway region in the northwest coastal mountains dominated by the president’s Alawite minority.

This podcast explores the geopolitical possibilities that are facing the minority Alawites of Syria. If the major cities of Syria fall to the rebels, would a smaller Alawite breakaway state even be economically or politically viable? This podcast argues that it would not, and therefore many Alawites see this as a zero sum game.  While this is all speculative, it uses spatial and geographic prinicples to assess the viability of possible outcomes.

See on Scoop.it – Geography Education See on www.npr.org