Engaging Syria – Opportunity or Ambush?

The following is a bullet-point summary of my recent presentation at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. The “other side,” so to speak was represented by my favorite sparring partner Joshua Landis.

* Just as is case with military engagement, political engagement has its rules. The following is one such rule: when dealing with corrupt authoritarian regimes, especially when they seem to have some ideological motivation, no matter how minimal, you do not give more than you take, lest you end up creating a problem in the future that is bigger than the one you were trying to resolve. Continue reading “Engaging Syria – Opportunity or Ambush?” →

Blogging and the Future of Democracy in the Arab World!

The following is a summary of a talk I recently gave at a State Department conference on Blogging and Democracy. I thought it would e of some interest here.

Many people across the world are still dubious of the possible avenues and channels for communications and expression that blogging can pave. But that is not surprising really. People have given a similar lukewarm response to the Internet itself at one point, not too long ago. But who can dispute the power and impact of the internet now? Continue reading “Blogging and the Future of Democracy in the Arab World!” →

ADC – The Arab Discrimination Committee!

Hardly a day goes by in Syria these days without new arrests taking place or activists getting banned from traveling or sentenced to long prison terms on some idiotic trumped up charges that only diseased minds can conjure. This is what happened when the Assads regime is in a defiant mode, and this is what will keep on happening when the world remains silent. Continue reading →

PEN World Voices 2006!

Ah yes, I have just found these two links below to the audio recording of the panel discussions that I participated in as part of involvement in the New York Festival of International Literature in April. For those of you interested in listening to them, just click on the links below, and do bear in mind that each panel lasted for around an hour (the files are in mp3 format):

Exiles in America and Just the Facts (Internet & Censorship). Also, below is the transcrip of the “Just the Facts” panel as posted on OpenDemocracy. Continue reading “PEN World Voices 2006!” →