​This study investigates the rapid collapse of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024 through theories of revolution and civil wars – with particular attention to state-centric and systemic approaches. By deconstructing the relationship between local, regional, and international environments, the study concludes that transformations in the external environment often become the deciding factor par excellence in determining the outcomes of civil wars within deeply divided pivot states such as Syria. It argues that five regional and international crises coincided and interacted during the last five years of the Assad regime (2019-2024), leading to its exhaustion and then its collapse: the war launched by Israel across the region, including in Syria, in the aftermath of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood; the Russo-Ukrainian War; US economic sanctions, particularly the Caesar Act; the Lebanese banking crisis; and the Covid-19 pandemic. These crises all contributed clearly to the crumbling of the structure of the regime, including its hard military and security core, which had remained remarkably cohesive for more than a decade after the outbreak of the revolution. They weakened and undermined it both economically and socially, leading to the disappearance of much of its domestic constituency and its international support – and, ultimately, to its collapse.​​​​​