Online Symposium: Syria’s Glasnost?

By Jamie Glazov | FrontPageMagazine.com | March 25, 2005

Syria has announced that it will withdraw its troops from Lebanon. The Syrian-leaning government of Lebanon dissolved itself and preparations are being made for multi-party elections. Syria has handed over to the Iraqi government Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a most-wanted leader in the Sunni insurgency who was operating out of Syria. Syria has also announced that it is shutting down the Damascus office of Islamic Jihad. Continue reading “Online Symposium: Syria’s Glasnost?” →

The oxymoron of “illiberal democracy”

Special to The Daily Star

The term “illiberal democracy,” advanced by some as an acceptable model for future change in many parts of the Middle East, is, in truth, an oxymoron. Real functioning democracies can never be illiberal. Nor can they be at peace with the rest of the world, a fact that makes their appearance quite problematic for many of their neighbors and for the world at large. Continue reading “The oxymoron of “illiberal democracy”” →