Syrian media reform: a glass half full or half empty?

Special to The Daily Star

The Syrian media have not shown any serious signs of change since the Baath Party assumed power in a 1963 coup. Indeed, Syria’s media sector is one of the most tightly controlled in the Arab world. Most publications are state-owned, and rarely express nonconformist opinions. The coming to power of young President Bashar Assad in 2000 raised hopes that the regime would loosen the reigns significantly. But after a brief period of decompression in 2001 known as the “Damascus spring,” Assad enacted a publications law that consolidated government control; he allowed the licensing of just one “independent” political magazine, owned by the son of the minister of defense; and he cracked down hard on dissent. Continue reading “Syrian media reform: a glass half full or half empty?” →

In Syria, Building a Civil Society Book by Book

The Chronicle of Higher Education
BYLINE: KATHERINE ZOEPF

Damascus, Syria

Leave it to others to devise grand programs for bringing democracy to the Middle East: Ammar Abdulhamid wants to lay the intellectual foundations of citizenship one book at a time.

Two years ago, with a small group of Syrian writers and academics here, Mr. Abdulhamid, a 38-year-old American-educated historian and novelist, founded DarEmar, a nonprofit publishing house dedicated to making canonical works of Western philosophy, social science, and literature available in Arabic. His goal, he says, is to print books that will foster “debate on a broad range of issues pertaining to civil society and democratization.” Continue reading “In Syria, Building a Civil Society Book by Book” →

Syria: De-Baathification from the Top?

A regime caught in the throes of self-reinvention
Syrian Studies Association Newsletter

The months that followed the US-led invasion of Iraq witnessed mounting pressures on the neighboring country of Syria and its ruling Baathist regime. These pressures, in many ways, came as a result of the Syrian regime’s combative stands vis-à-vis the United States during the early stages of the invasion and its support of the nascent insurgency against it, and were thus aimed at forcing the regime to reverse its policies. Soon, however, the scope of change demanded of the Syrian regime expanded to include its backing of outlawed Palestinian groups and its continued dabbling in Lebanon’s internal affairs and its support for Hezbollah’s activities there. Continue reading “Syria: De-Baathification from the Top?” →

The Syrian opposition’s woeful irrelevance

Special to The Daily Star

One of the major problems of the nascent opposition movement in Syria is its adoption of attitudes and modes of discourse very much reminiscent of the regime it is supposedly opposing.

The Syrian opposition does not seek to justify itself to the Syrian people or gain their support, and it fails to provide a vision for change in the country, be it political, social or economic. No wonder, then, that Syrians continue to be politically apathetic and inclined to pinning their hopes on the ability of President Bashar Assad to deliver on his long-promised reforms. Continue reading “The Syrian opposition’s woeful irrelevance” →