There never was an “Arab Spring”
With the top of the leadership pyramid removed, the societies left behind were rife with internal divisions. Without any historical experience, or sufficient wealth to divide... Read More
From YouTube to Jihad – Balkan volunteers in Syria
Even though conservative Islam is not much appreciated among the liberal and secular Bosniak and Albanian communities in the Western Balkans, radical groups show an... Read More
Syria – a revolution at any cost?
Decentralizing the Syrian peace process is a pragmatic answer to the fact that the rebels don’t have a central authority, and that it is very... Read More
Solving the Syrian conflict starts with shutting up
Can a decentralised transitional power model – as proposed in ‘Solving the Syrian conflict starts with building trust’ – really be carried out by western diplomats... Read More
Serbia and Syria
There has been a failure of public diplomacy by the US, the UK, France and Germany to serve the interests of stability in either Serbia or... Read More
Solving the Syrian conflict starts by building trust
A locally-focused, bottom-up approach which puts Syrian interests first offers a prospective path for transition and a peaceful settlement to the conflict.
After Syria
The Lebanonization of Syria means the latter could face a long period of instability and rivalry among sectarian, tribal, and other competitors for power, resources,... Read More
Damascus and the Tariqa (the way by initiation)
With the current hardening of the sense of duality between Syrian government and opposition, good faith negotiations seem even further away. The vision of an... Read More
Where did Assad go to school?
The Sri Lanka model – where a long, low-intensity civil war reached a violent, bloody climax; yet its architects remain in power and have escaped... Read More
Syria, late in the day – are negotiations still possible?
In the face of continued stalemate between the Syrian government and the opposition, a useful next step would be to explore the possibility of setting an agenda of issues that could be the basis of negotiations.
Syria – to break the downward spiral
It is necessary to consider what role NGOs might now play in Syria – particularly to support the mediation efforts of former UN secretary-general, Kofi... Read More