Rethinking Wendy Pearlman’s ‘silencing fear’ in the rules of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad: an affective perspective

Wendy Pearlman's Narratives of Fear in Syria (2016) frames silencing fear as a pervasive affective condition shaping subjectivity under authoritarian rule, based primarily on citizen testimonies. Building on her insights, this study reconceptualises silencing fear through Sara Ahmed's theory of affective economies, extending Ahmed's framework beyond Western liberal democratic contexts to theorise how authoritarian regimes govern by orchestrating the circulation of affect. I theorise silencing fear as a distinct affective economy in which fear moves both vertically and laterally, structured by historical, spatial and relational processes particular to Syrian authoritarianism. The study disaggregates Pearlman's broad category into four modalities – pre-emptive, existential, absolute and lingering – and traces their evolution under Hafez and Bashar al-Assad in response to shifting crises and threats. This reconceptualisation links micro-level subjective experience with macro-level regime dynamics, offering a refined theoretical lens for understanding authoritarian affect and its structure. In doing so, the study extends Ahmed's framework in new analytical directions and opens pathways for future research at the intersection of governmentality, authoritarianism and affect theory, including comparative analyses and investigations into localised fear economies shaped by sect, class, ethnicity and geography.