Product Description

Syria is one of the world's great police states. After the death of President Hafez al-Assas in mid-2000 hopes were high that his son and successor, Bashar, might succeed in reforming a system that had become a byword for repression. For six months, and for the first time in decades, Syrians were able to speak freely, without fear of the hated secret police, or mukhabarat. Political discussion groups mushroomed. The press started carrying articles openly demanding democracy, and pro-democracy petitions were circulated. Alarmed at the potential threat, regime hardliners struck back, closing down discussion and staging show trials at which pro-democracy activists were sentenced to years in jail. As justification, the regime cynically cited the need for "national unity" at a time when Israel under Ariel Sharon and the United States under George W. Bush were subjecting the region to onslaughts that many Middle Easterners saw as new manifestations of an old imperialism. Here, Alan George recounts the drama of the "Damascus Spring" and its repression, and reveals what happens in a state like Syria to the institutions that occupy the political space between government and governed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183972 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
'A devastating critique of one-party rule and unchecked power, and a stirring vindication of Syria's courageous civil society movement' - Rana Kabbani 'Alan George has managed to combine journalistic immediacy with academic reflection to great effect in this fascinating study of modern Syria. Based, as it is, on personal interviews with Syrians directly involved in contemporary developments there, as well as on an awareness of the Syrian reality developed over many years, this book illuminates the real crisis that Syria faces as it tries to restructure the monolithic legacy of the late President Hafidh al-Assad' - George Joffe, Centre for International Studies, Cambridge University

About the Author
ALAN GEORGE gained his PhD, on Syria, at Durham in 1978. Since 1984 he has worked as a freelance journalist and researcher, contributing to the Observer, the Independent and the Guardian, and commentating on Middle Eastern affairs for radio and television. He is a former Assistant Director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU). He has visited Syria repeatedly since 1967.

Customer Reviews

Informative account of the Damascus spring
An informative account of the suppression of the 'Damascus spring', the brief flowering of political discussion groups after Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father as president of Syria. Recommended to me - after I'd read it - by one of the key figures in the liberal opposition, who today has a secret policeman outside his house. Doesn't convey any clear sense of what the alternative to Baathist rule may be, but that is part of the problem with Syria today. Good read without being sensationalist or exaggerating the sense of crisis in the system.