Will the Syrian regime take on the world?

Special to The Daily Star

To an outside observer, the Syrian regime must seem bent on pursuing a path of confrontation with the rest of the world. At the beginning of the American invasion of Iraq, and thanks to the bellicose posture the Syrian regime adopted during the early stages of the conflict, a similar showdown with the US was averted only at the last minute. This occurred because cooler heads in the Bush administration prevailed in their argument that a quarrel with Syria would, at that stage, distract Washington from its main task in Iraq. Continue reading “Will the Syrian regime take on the world?” →

A Modernizer Challenges Syria’s Old Order

washingtonpost.com
By Nora Boustany

Going out on a limb almost comes naturally for Ammar Abdulhamid. He grew up in an artsy milieu in Damascus, the only child of a celebrity couple whose daily existence depended on living on the edge of what was acceptable within a rigid political system. His father, Mohammed Shaheen, was a movie director, and his mother, Mona Wasef, is a top Syrian actress. To succeed in their field meant breaking barriers. Continue reading “A Modernizer Challenges Syria’s Old Order” →

The Internal Dynamics of Syrian Politics

Lecture at the Brookings Institution

Syria has developed a reputation as an esoteric state because of the actions of its late President, Hafez el Asad. Asad’s rural beginnings, military education, and limited exposure to the West contributed to his deep familiarity with Syrian social and political culture. But, it also limited his understanding of ever-changing global realities, especially in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the West, Asad was, nonetheless, perceived as a political genius because Western knowledge of Syria was extremely limited. Continue reading “The Internal Dynamics of Syrian Politics” →

Stuck in the Bottleneck

Tharwa Editorial / Also published in the Daily Star under the title: “Prepare for when the Arab bottle breaks.”

When you are stuck in the neck of a bottle, it doesn’t matter how far you are from the bottom, or how close you come to the edge of freedom. There are no points of no return. As you struggle to free yourself, you can as easily fail and fall as succeed and climb out of the top. For those stuck in the neck, though, the option of not doing anything, of accepting their bondage, seems like the safest bet. But what happens when they realize that an overwhelming force may threaten to break the bottle? What is the safest bet then? Continue reading “Stuck in the Bottleneck” →