Books
A Multi-Faceted Author
The books I have authored focus on Syrian politics, Syrian history, Islam, Modern philosophy and strategic studies. Along with being a journalist, I am also a political scientist
My Books
This book looks into the situation of human rights in the Arab world, which represents the missing aspect of the governance reality in the Middle East today. Human rights should be the pillar of development and governance. The author tries to highlight this point by monitoring the concepts of human rights history from the French revolution to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where the author analyzes the contribution of the Arab and Muslim worlds to the global human rights movement.
The Postmodernist movement started with the intellectual and ideological shocks that afflicted mankind, not to mention, the constant repetition that generalizes chaos and calls for the absence of values and promotes nihilism. Our rejection of some ideas should not blind us to the bold criticism through which this thought was able to reveal the contradictions and ambiguities of modernity. And if we insist on dealing with this thought reliably as we have done with others before, then we have to take advantage of new ideas to think about our crises and to suggest new outlets or ways for change.
Within these concerns, I conducted these studies that sought to approach chapters of Western thought within its historical context. It would help to consider the crisis of modernity and to explore the features of this crisis from which the seeds of new modernity called "post-modernity" are created, and to search for its intellectual origins through accountability practiced by it. This thought is bored by Nietzsche and Heidegger, and also co-relates with transformations of the world along with the phenomenon of globalization.
The question of the Renaissance “Ennahdha” has become a preoccupation for many Arab intellectuals and thinkers. However, we notice two types of this excessive interest in Ennahdha, the first attempting to restore the "Renaissance" as evidenced in the writings of the first pioneers at the end of the nineteenth century, and striving to evoke their virtues and sayings. In contrast, the second attends the "Renaissance" as a kind of blessedness, or the desired hope, As he seeks to send a new Arab renaissance through a lot of writing about it, or by using the hadiths to attract it. Both types of talk about Ennahda constitute a new ideology that is strongly present in contemporary Arab discourse and stuck to its rhetoric.
Does the ideology of Ennahdha today express a new intellectual stalemate that modern Arabs enter, after many of the dilemmas that they fell into the trail as models of supposed dualities?
What this book aspires for in its main goal is a critique of the Renaissance ideology, as manifested in contemporary Arab discourse, and through its inspirational and inspirational types, that is, one that inspires the Renaissance, and that which deludes us to the Renaissance, it is a critique of the treatises, some of which carry a kind of seriousness and depth, but many It is nothing more than pure creation and eloquence.
The first book issued by a Syrian writer on the subject. This book focuses mainly on lessons learned from the bilateral peace negotiations held between Syria and Israel after the Madrid Peace Conference in 1990; it dives into the details of these negotiations since Madrid and until its demise in arch 2000 after the Geneva meeting between the late Syrian President Hafez al-Asad and U.S. President Bill Clinton.
The Syrian-Israeli negotiating track is distinct from other Arab-Israeli tracks as it has the largest number of missed or wasted opportunities, the chronicling of these negotiations in accordance with this formula tempted many researchers and analysts, perhaps because it didn’t achieve anything, so it became known with the opportunities more than with the results and achievements.
But what should be mentioned that Syrian-Israeli negotiations since its inception with the Madrid Conference in 1990 and until it stopped completely were not the main target in itself, in other words, if negotiating in its school sense, means following the common interest and focusing on what presents the benefit of the two parties together, and for that they have to reach compromises concerning the outstanding negotiating issues, negotiating in its “middle eastern” meaning is identified with zero-sum, for the gain of one party is the loss of the other and vice versa, and in this light, the Syrian-Israeli negotiations took place for the ten past years. The Syrian negotiation strategy was based mainly on getting an Israeli commitment or an obligation to withdraw completely from the Golan Heights to the line of the 4th of June 1967.With this ultimate strategic goal all the Syrian tactics or Syrian concessions in the areas of security, water, normalization can be understood. Security, for example, must be equal and mutual to both parties but with the condition that it does not affect the Syrian sovereignty in Golan, and it's the excuse for the persistent Syrian rejection of the existence of Israeli early warning stations in the Golan Heights for the Syrians see them as tools to disdain Syrian sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
The Syrian diplomacy resorted to all means, long and short term goals, either by stirring up southern Lebanon or using the issue of normalization with the rest of the Arab world or by employing Damascus-based Palestinian groups that oppose the Oslo Accords. At the same time, Syria wanted to use its negotiations with Israel to improve relations with the world superpower, the United States; and al-Asad knew that the United States alone could make peace in the Middle East, either through pressure on Israel or through the employment of the overall policy in the The Middle East for the benefit of the peace process. No one ever denies that there are missed opportunities that might give peace to both parties if they were utilized in better ways, but certainly our definition of ‘missed opportunities’ differ, as we differ in our readings of the International, Regional and Local circumstances which should be prepared so that the opportunity brings peace. Otherwise, they will only be impeding factors facing the achievement of this opportunity. That’s why the paper continuously tries to read the reflections of the social transformations on the political attitude and its differences between the Syrians and Israelis, which casts a shadow on the political the system in both countries, on the decision making mechanisms in each of them, and on the kitchen of foreign policy too, and generally, we won’t find real differences in this context.
The problem of Islam and modernity has been an important point of discussion in the Arab and Islamic world for decades. However, this discussion has taken various forms, such as being called the conflict between the past and the present, or tradition and progress. This discussion has hidden within it clear contradictions when seeking a compromise between the Abrahamic religions and present times throughout history. This conflict first appeared in the geographic area known as the Islamic world and looked much like the Age of Enlightenment in Europe in the eighteenth century. However, the true meaning of conflict revolved around the capacity of Islam as a religion to be compatible with modernity and its philosophy, precepts, politics, and historical facts. This means that Islam was obliged to come into agreement with modernity, which became like the soul and language of the present.
The problem of Islam and modernity was dealt with by many as a search for commonality. In contrast, others searched for points of contention in order to show that, if modernization were to be achieved, Islam would have to be left behind. We can describe this as the Arabic reaction to modernity. And in general, we can say that the questions in which Arabic society asked to understand the problem of its relationship with modernity were not exclusively Arabic. In fact, all non-Western societies asked the same questions. If modernity and its entire human heritage couldn’t answer these questions, it would fade into history. But its human culture and historical experience made non-Western societies ask questions of their own traditions to assess to what extent they could participate in and contribute to modernity. So, modernity shocked all societies outside its historical undertaking and affected them through its scientific and technological achievements. But this shock not only affected non-Western societies, but it also affected Western societies themselves by forcing them to find answers to the questions that non-Western societies asked of modernity. Postmodernism is a result of non-Western societies’ reactions to modernity. Postmodernism’s pioneers acknowledge this fact.
As far as the Syrian intellectuals saw themselves as the framers of the policy and the founders of its field through their founding of parties, as much as they found themselves at the end of the nineties victims of politics and on its margins completely. This is the dramatic transformation that this book reveals by monitoring the historical relationship between the intellectual and the authority in Syria, raising many questions about the social emergence of Syrian intellectuals, and the forms that this relationship has gone through throughout its long history from the second decade of the twentieth century to the present moment. The book also discusses the stakes of the Syrian intellectuals on civil society, reviewing the semantic transformations of the concept of civil society among ordinary intellectuals. In addition to that, the book includes a number of documents that monitor civil society dialogues, starting from the document of a founding project for the Association of Friends of Civil Society in Syria and ending with the Damascus Declaration for National and Democratic Change.
The Challenges of Modernity and Globalization to the contemporary Arab World are related to the question od Identity and Islam and the role of Islam in shaping the Arab States today.
This book examines the decision-making mechanism in Syria from the angle of the development of legislative and executive institutions and its stability on a specific formula that has become effective in the decision-making mechanism, and then the interaction of the executive institutions with the legislative and judicial institutions and the emergence of multiple bodies from within the military authority has become an active role in internal and external policy.
The study of the decision-making process within a political system reveals, according to the author, the limits and the role of formal and informal institutions in the political and economic life of society, and the effectiveness of these institutions despite their constitutional and legal presence, which is not revealed by comparative or empirical political studies.
The book contains documentation of all the dialogues that took place during the period (Damascus Spring); In a way, it reflects the true image of the Syrian society, especially the ideas put forward by activists, opponents, and intellectuals, as well as the way of thinking of the ruling political officials and members of the Baath Party.
The book deals with the development of the relationship between the authority and Islamic movements in Syria, and the role of these movements in shaping the political field, and in return how the shape of the political system that prevailed in Syria since 1963 affects the future of Islamic movements and the future of political life in Syria in general.
The book is divided into nine axes in which the author reviewed the early relationship between religion and the state in Syria, the establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, the dual religious containment policy, then the climax of the armed clash between the group and the Ba'athist regime, and discussed institutional decision-making mechanisms in Syria and the dominant position of the head of state, And manifestations of official Islam, the scene of political Islam in Syria after the Iraq war, the transformation of the Baath Party and its investment in religious discourse to confront various crises, and finally the future of political Islam in Syria in the light of internal and international developments.
Kurds in Syria have been denied basic social, cultural, and political rights, in many cases stemming from the Syrian state’s refusal to grant citizenship. Kurdish political opposition in Syria is fractured. Though some join Kurds in other countries in calling for the emergence of a separate Kurdish state, many Kurds reject separatism and have generally been committed to the peaceful democratic struggle. Democratic reforms in Syria that improve the human rights situation for Kurds and non-Kurds could go a long way to alleviate the tension between the Kurds and the Syrian state. The problems that Syrian Kurds face cannot be truly solved without an effort both to improve the human rights of Kurds throughout the region and to foster their political inclusion in their states of residency. The United States and European Union should use any diplomatic tools at their disposal to promote appropriate reforms in Syria and the region
The story of those missing in Syrian prisons is the story of a country that has devoured its own sons. The enforced disappearances of oppositionists and the impunity of the perpetrators are the price paid for the ―Kingdom of Silence‖ established by the authoritarian and abusive Syrian regime.2 Among the portfolio of human rights violations in Syria, the issue of persons forcibly disappeared, in particular, has become a national disaster. While the missing number in the thousands, deleterious effects extend to hundreds of thousands of Syrian citizens who were stripped of their political and civil rights. The phenomenon has led to the psychological, social, and economic destruction of many Syrian communities for more than 30 years.
In this book, Ziadeh analysis the meaning of values from a linguistic standpoint, and explained how the Arabs understood the values, what they mean to them, and how the values were formed, and why they were classified as religious, political, economic, social or aesthetic values, and then he goes on to review the treatment of philosophers to the problems of values and their standardization and proximity to That the values be universal. At the same time, the second section, written by Kevin J. O'Toole, studied the difference in values between the Muslim and Western people. He went back to the definition of the Muslim person to the principles of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and to the Western definition of the principles of the Council of Europe and digging in history to determine when the friction between the West and Islam began, And What do the latest, and the consequences of this friction and conflict.
The similarity of the dissolution of authoritarian political systems in the world enticed a study of the convergence and divergences in the democratic transition in Eastern Europe and the countries of Latin America as an approach with the Arab countries.
As the author was forced to leave his country, Syria, as an opponent, he became obsessed with the possibility of achieving democratization, especially in his country, so he visited more than fifty countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Arab countries to benefit from their experiences in democratization.
The author got acquainted with the ideas and experiences of the pioneers of democratization in the world, from Jin Sharp, from which most of the ideas contained in the book were drawn, from Gandhi and Luther King to the "Arab Spring Revolutions."
The book details how the ruling Ba'ath Party in Syria, since its coming to power in 1963, has been able to accumulate this large number of oppositions because of its history of intelligence and security practices against all segments of the Syrian people, from opposition parties to religious currents to intellectuals.
With the beginning of the “Arab Spring Revolutions,” and during the reign of Bashar Al-Assad, these practices exploded a peaceful revolution that developed into an actual war between the Syrian regime and the opposition.
This book focuses on the practices referred to in these oppositions, especially in the first decade of the reign of Assad, son, Lebanese-Syrian relations and Syria's regional role in the July 2006 war and beyond to the "peaceful" revolution that turned into a civil war in which all weapons are used starting from objects Bare to Facebook and the Internet all the way to explosives, bomber planes, and strategic missiles.
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Policy-Syria-Intelligence-Relations/dp/1780762909
As Bashar al-Asad rescinds emergency rule in the face of demonstrations and protests, Syria finds itself in a key position in the Middle East beset by regional tensions, the repercussions of the global "war on terror" and popular uprisings. The bloodless coup by General Hafez al-Assad, in 1970, put in place a powerful autocratic machinery at the core of the state, which continues today under the control of his son Bashar. Here, Radwan Ziadeh presents a fresh and penetrating analysis of Syria's political structure - a "despotic" state monopoly, a bureaucratic climate marked by fear, and the administrative structure through which centralized control is exercised. With a focus on Syria's intelligence services which have a significant influence in legal and policy decisions, and the conditions and patterns of foreign policy decision-making, particularly vis-à-vis the U.S., Power, and Policy in Syria is essential reading for all those interested in Syria, the modern Middle East, International Relations, and Security Studies.
A Multifaceted Response to Syria’s Brutality, Project on Middle East Democracy POMED, May 2011.
As nonviolent uprisings began to sweep across the Middle East, Syria initially appeared to have missed the democratic wave pulsating through the region. Although Syrians suffer from many of the same grievances that all the rest of the Arab world, the pervasiveness, and brutality of the country’s security apparatus deterred people from rising up against their government. Once citizens overcame this barrier of fear, however, large-scale demonstrations erupted around the country, posing the greatest threat to Bashar al-Assad’s regime since he came to power. The young leader, who earlier boasted of his immunity to this democratic contagion, responded with a combination of brute force and insincere reforms that recalled the failed tactics of now-deposed autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt. Just as in those countries, such measures have only hardened the resolve of protesters. In turn, the Syrian regime has escalated its crackdown to a degree rivaled only by the Libyan leadership. In doing so, Assad has lost the legitimacy to rule. Unfortunately, the United States has yet to take steps that are commensurate with the severity of the violence. The U.S. leverage with Syria may be limited, but there are nonetheless steps that Washington can take, in coordination with the international community, to help ease Assad out of power
It is now certain that the collapse of the Assad regime is imminent. Yet two questions remain: What is the cost, and how long will it take the Syrian people to enter a transitional period? The ultimate goal of the great Syrian uprising is to topple the regime in any way, shape, or form. The regime’s “crimes against humanity” and massacres against unarmed civilians carried out via brutal and atrocious methods of extrajudicial killing and torture have never been witnessed anywhere else in the region. Any country transitioning to democracy will be faced with one core question and challenge: How can the former totalitarian regime be disassembled and dismantled?
Since the socialist Baath party’s establishment of the Third Republic in 1963, Syria has had much in common with many of the totalitarian regimes in Eastern European Latin America. Therefore, the Syrians must learn from these other countries’ experiences and figure out how to bring about a safer and peaceful democratic transition.
- The Kurdish Issue in Syria, Riad Elrayes Books, Beirut, 2020. (In Arabic).
With the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011, the cities and areas inhabited by the Kurds were among the most regions where claims and demonstrations against the Syrian regime interacted in the first stage of the revolution, then claims of national rights were added in the subsequent stage. The regime tried to play the Kurdish card, in an attempt to win the support of the Kurds and push them not to participate in the revolution against it, but that attempt did not succeed in the first stage of the revolution, it had a share of success then, and indirectly, through the organic relationship with the PKK, And the Syrian branch, the Democratic Union Party.
The YPG benefited from American, and therefore Russian military and logistical support, to control important parts of the north and northeast Syria, where most of the battles were resolved from the air, and the force on the ground had nothing more than the task of seizing the areas from which ISIS withdrew.
This book attempts to address the main Kurdish political forces active in Syria politically and militarily, up to the demands of the Kurds today in any peace process in Syria, and then address the options for resolving the Kurdish question in Syria, and that includes the framework of a comprehensive democratic transformation in Syria.
Accountability in Syria: Achieving Transitional Justice in a Post-conflict Society (Lexington Books (January 9, 2020).
https://www.amazon.com/Accountability-Syria-Achieving-Transitional-Postconflict/dp/1498511899
Gross violations of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Laws have been committed in Syria. After a full cessation of violence, launching transitional justice processes will signal to the victims that those responsible for committing these crimes will be brought to reparation and that the time of impunity is over. This book discusses the available options of justice and how accountability will be achieved through international systems and a new hybrid court system.
Review In Accountability in Syria, Radwan Ziadeh and others have eloquently defined the many crimes against humanity that have occurred during Syria’s conflict. In the words of one contributor, “The international community has abandoned Syrians and left them to die at the hands of their government.” Ziadeh and his co-authors are giving that community a chance to regroup and breathe new life into the words “Never Again.”
The authors have admirably illuminated the challenges of achieving accountability and justice, given the imperfect Syrian and international tools at hand. Yet accountability is essential for peace in Syria and stability beyond. This is an important book, and not just for Syrians. (Frederic C. Hof, Diplomat-in- Residence, Bard College)
The Syrian conflict remains a never-ending catastrophe. This book is an important contribution to our knowledge about what has happened and what should be done about it. It paints a critical picture and deepens our understanding of the conflict and its effects. It is well researched with a number of knowledgeable Syrians, as well as some well-known international experts, contributing important and interesting chapters. This book is a must-read for everyone interested in what has occurred in Syria, as well as those concerned with human rights, transitional justice, and other topics connected to societies in conflict. (Jeremy Sarkin, NOVA University)
In the wake of the Arab spring of 2011, the struggle for leadership of the Arab world has taken on a new significance, and with this comes the ever-present issue of the Arab-Israeli Peace Process. The 1990s was a decade of US-led peace-making in the Middle East, and the Syrian-Israeli talks teetered on a deal more than once. The framework for a potential peace agreement was established through these bilateral negotiations, but after the collapse of the Asad-Clinton summit of 2000, the 'Syrian track' stalled as positions hardened, and regional and domestic political realities shifted. Here, Radwan Ziadeh tracks these negotiations, from the Madrid conference of 1991 to the Asad-Clinton summit, and beyond, examining how Syria's foreign policy has changed with the rise to power of Bashar al-Asad and, in Iran, of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri in Lebanon and the Iraq war. This book provides a valuable and thorough historical analysis of this period of Middle Eastern politics and international diplomacy as well as examining the potential impact of a peace deal on Syrian society, politics, and economy.
http://syrianexperthouse.org/archives/775
In late 2012, he established Syria Experts House (http://syrianexperthouse.org) which is a combined group of approximately 300 human rights activists, academics, judges, lawyers, opposition leaders and diplomats all committed to holding periodic meetings to build a final vision of the transitional period and produce considered, deliberate recommendations for Syria`s political future.
The Syrian Expert House is an initiative launched by the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies to analyze and study the transitional period in Syria. The Syrian Expert House is a combined group of approximately three hundred human rights activists, academics, judges, lawyers, doctors, opposition politicians, defected government officials, defected military officers, members of local revolutionary councils, and commanders of the armed opposition. They are committed to holding periodic meetings to build a final vision of the transitional period and produce considered, deliberate recommendations for the political, social, economic, military, and security aspects of the future of Syria.
The Syrian Expert House consists of six thematic working groups:
- Constitutional Reform and the Rule of Law
- Political Administrative Reform
- Electoral Reform and Political Parties Law
- Security Sector Reform o Economic Reform
- Transitional Justice and National Reconciliation
- The gatherings of these working groups resulted in the publishing of Syria
Book Chapters and Editing
The Spanish experience after Franco appears as an experience that occupies a special place in the experiences of transformation in the world, especially in terms of comparison to the economic, social, and political situation that Spain was in the days of Franco and what Spain is today. It is also one of the most successful experiences of a safe democratic transition towards democracy, compared to other experiences of transformation in Eastern Europe and Latin America. In light of this comparison, a seminar entitled (Exploring Strategies to Support the Democratic Movement in Syria by Benefiting from the Spanish Experience) was organized in Spain in the charming and magnificent historic city of Toledo in May 2006, and it was very rich and rich, as it gathered a number of Syrian researchers and activists and a number One of the Spanish politicians, historians, and intellectuals who played a pivotal role in the process of democratization in Spain, to consider the possibility of Syria benefiting from the experience of Spanish safe transformation.
The book attempts to develop a holistic view to look at the future of Syria, its upcoming bets, and the nature of the changes that it will witness at the international and regional levels, or internally. The book raises the question about ways to reform in light of the international struggle for acquisition and an internal difficulty in reform. The book consists of 3 chapters. The first focuses on the Syrian regional policy and the transformations of the Syrian-Lebanese relations. The second chapter focuses on social and religious forces and their relationship to scenarios of change, including the phenomena of political Islam and its currents in Syria. The last chapter highlights civil society and human rights as an introduction to reform and change in Syria.
Most of the book's articles highlight the movement and new indicators in Syrian political life after President Bashar al-Assad took power in Syria, which are indications of economic and political reform and change, and they intersected with aspirations of those wishing to change for the better, activating the social movement.
He expressed himself in multiple forms, manifested in the issuance of statements and documents, calling for the abolition of the state of emergency, courts and martial and exceptional rulings, for the release of all political detainees in Syrian prisons, the release of freedoms, and many others. Assemblies of intellectuals and many forums for dialogue have developed.
The story of the "National Dialogue Forum" is the story of the "Damascus Spring" itself, as his age is from the age of the spring. It was the first spark that launched the spring, then with its closure in February 2001 and the transfer of the first person responsible for it, Deputy Riyadh Saif, for investigation after the partial immunity was lifted, it was the beginning of the end for the Damascus Spring. With his resumption in September 2001 and the arrest of eight of his active members in his commission and his conversations, the end of that spring was over.
It can be said that his first seed started at the end of 1998, specifically during the legislative elections for the People's Assembly in its seventh session [1999-2003], where M.P. Riad Seif held a number of broad and broad-spectrum national dialogues during his distinguished campaign in the headquarters of his campaign in the Al-Midan area within a city Damascus, which Seif nominates as deputy for a second term.
These dialogues were called “National Dialogue Sessions,” and they continued over nine sessions that discussed political, social, legal, and environmental matters within a rare audacity and at the same time a distinctive awareness of the limits of the ceiling that these dialogues should not breakthrough, which is what one prominent journalist at the time called “dialogues under The presidential tent "where President Hafez al-Assad was still alive, but he began in a very shy manner" to pay attention to "the internal situation that he completely forgot in the interest of foreign policy, which was also determined and over the past ten years in negotiations with Israel, those negotiations that ranged from tensile And attraction with a sense According to the Israeli government and also the U.S. administration. Whatever it was, the late President Hafez Al-Assad himself had gone to the Sixth Legislative Council after announcing the results with a letter that could be considered as the inaugural speech for the stage of development and modernization that was later sponsored by his successor and son Bashar Al-Assad.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union, was officially announced, as did the end of the bipolar system and its consequences, in the world. And the world moved from the coldness of the cold war to the fever of major transformations to paint the new image that will replace the image that began to be drawn in the First World War and was completed in World War II, where the ambition of the Arabs at that time, influenced by national ideas, was to build the Arab state, this dream that His flag-bearers aborted him even though the Arab people who believed in him killed him.
Now the occupation of Baghdad teaches a new foundation for major transformations that affect the world in general, but they affect the Arab world in particular. He has come to view the Arab dream of liberating Palestine from the occupation as a form of unrealistic thinking, and the occupation of Iraq comes to ask other questions.
Islam and Political Thought: Democracy, The West, Iran. Beirut: Center for Arab Culture, 2000. (in Arabic)
Book Chapters
Global Cooperation in Transitional Justice: Challenges, Possibilities, and Limits, edited by Noemi Gal-Or and Birgit Schwelling, Centre for Global Cooperation Research, Global Dialogues 6, Duisburg 2015.
https://www.gcr21.org/publications/gcr/global-dialogues/global-cooperation-in-transitional-justice-challenges- possibilities-and-limits
https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Arab-Spring-Personal-Revolutions/dp/0231163193
Narrated by dozens of activists and everyday individuals, this book documents the unprecedented events that led to the collapse of dictatorial regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Beginning in 2011, these stories offer unique access to the message that inspired citizens to act, their experiences during the revolt, and the lessons they learned from some of the most dramatic changes and appalling events to occur in the history of the Arab world. The riveting, revealing, and sometimes heartbreaking stories in this volume also include voices from Syria.
Featuring participants from a variety of social and educational backgrounds and political
Since its inception, the annual Middle East Dialogue conference sponsored by the Digest of Middle East Studies (DOMES) journal and the Policy Studies Organization (PSO), has become a major international event that brings together leading scholars, diplomats, and policymakers, seeking possible solutions to persistent and often horrendous issues in the Middle East and North Africa. In this book, the events of the Arab Spring and its aftermath are very much on the writers’ minds. Included are essays based on papers and debate at the Dialogue in Washington, D.C., and the Conference of the Association for Middle Eastern Public Policy and Administration held in Ifrane, Morocco. The authors were charged with presenting fair and balanced treatment of the controversies involving democratic aspirations, delayed reforms, strained governance and leadership, escalating economic challenges, bitter sectarian conflicts, and gross gender inequities.
This handbook for journalists, citizens, and activists takes a look at how Syria could deal with issues of transitional justice when it emerges from the current period of conflict and instability.
Written by a team of experts, the handbook provides perspectives on the nature of transitional justice, how Syria could approach the issue, and what lessons can be learned from other regional countries.
https://www.amazon.com/Syria-Dilemma-Boston-Review-Books/dp/026202683X
The United States is on the brink of intervention in Syria, but the effect of any eventual American action is impossible to predict. The Syrian conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions, yet most observers warn that the worst is still to come. And the international community cannot agree on how to respond to this humanitarian catastrophe. World leaders have repeatedly resolved not to let atrocities happen in plain view, but the legacy of the bloody and costly intervention in Iraq has left policymakers with little appetite for more military operations. So we find ourselves in the grip of a double burden: the urge to stop the bleeding in Syria, and the fear that attempting to do so would be Iraq redux.
What should be done about the apparently intractable Syrian conflict? This book focuses on the ethical and political dilemmas at the heart of the debate about Syria and the possibility of humanitarian intervention in today's world.
https://www.amazon.com/Arab-Spring-Thaw-Unfinished-Revolutions/dp/B01A65W9MU
What were the unifying principles or strategies that governed the protest movements that swept the Middle East and North Africa in the spring of 2011? Who were the protestors, and how did the different authoritarian regimes respond to them? How did regional and international institutions react to a region in turmoil? The Arab Spring and Arab Thaw; Unfinished Revolutions and the Quest for Democracy addresses these questions by examining a range of successful and unsuccessful protest strategies and counter-revolutionary tactics employed by protestors and autocratic regimes. Contributors explore the reactions of the USA, E.U., and Arab League to events in the region and provide insight as to the gendered dimensions of the struggle along with the ethnic and tribal divisions that continue to impact the post-revolt period. By addressing these critical queries, the book demonstrates how the Arab Spring has evolved into a protracted Arab Thaw that continues to affect regional and international politics profoundly.
https://www.amazon.com/Countries-Crossroads-2011-Democratic-Governance/dp/1442212616
Countries at the Crossroads: An Analysis of Democratic Governance evaluates government performance in seventy strategically important countries from across the globe, including emerging market countries and at-risk states. The in-depth comparative analyses and quantitative ratings— examining Accountability and Public Voice, Civil Liberties, Rule of Law, and Anticorruption and Transparency—serve as a valuable tool for public analysts, educators and students, government officials, and the business community.
“Transitional Justice as a Foundation for Re-Establishing the Legitimacy of Arab States” pp.249-265, “Human Rights Debates: Perspectives from the South,” edited by Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid and Hisham Soliman, The International Journal on Human Rights (Sur) and Partners in Development for Research in Cairo, 2011.
http://www.emhrf.org/archives/en/documents/EnglishLR.pdf
On April 2-3, 2011, the Foundation convened a discussion seminar entitled the Democratic Change in the Arab Region: State Policy and the Dynamics of Civil Society.
The seminar brought together more than 60 actors enjoying the high status and playing an important role in the Arab region, including those who have made gains on the ground in the struggle for rights and freedoms, and who seek to innovate with regard to the goals and forms of these interventions.
The seminar was one of the first of its kind to be organized in the wake of the momentous uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. It provided the space for a preliminary exchange and reflection between key academics, civil society actors, donors, and government representatives who work in or on the region, and who, particularly, are involved in the promotion of democracy and protection of human rights. The discussions focused on four major axes: the logics of local state actors, of international actors, of civil society and non-governmental actors, and of the donor community.
Thanks to its numerous angles of analysis and viewpoints, the report provides a strong base upon which to build policies and strategies to promote and protect democracy and human rights and is highly relevant to all those involved in the Middle East and North Africa, whether as donors, government representatives, academics or civil society actors.
Do the images change through the negotiations? The Syrian-Israeli experience”, in
The World facing Israel – Israel facing the World: Images and Politics”, Mainz University Book, edited by Alfred Wittstock, 2011. (In English).
Israel’s global image is strongly if not entirely characterized by perceptions of the Middle East conflict. While the state does indeed play a central role in this multidimensional conflict, it is all too easily forgotten that Israel also has diverse political, economic, and cultural ties with a broad range of the world’s states and regions. There is a considerable contrast between Israel’s significance in international politics, economy, and culture, on the one hand, and the public image shaped by media coverage on the other, which is emotionally charged and largely reduced to the Middle East conflict. This contrast necessitates an analysis both of Israel’s relationships with the states and regions of the world as well as of those states’ and regions’ own stances towards, and perceptions of, Israel.
“The Crises of the religious minorities in Iran.” In “Sunni Minority in Iran today,” pp.35-58, Dubai: Al-Mesbar Studies and Research Centre, October 2010. (In Arabic)
https://www.amazon.com/Sociology-Islam-Secularism-Economy-Politics/dp/0863723713
The contributions of Islam to world civilization are undeniable. However, in the last 100 years, Muslims have been confronted with the effects and ramifications of modernity, caused by the emergence of global capitalism. What does modernity ultimately mean for Muslims? How will the historical precepts of Islam meet the changes in our globalized world? To date, most scholars on Islam have tried to understand Muslim societies from historical observation alone. This simplistic academic approach does not allow us to understand the entire transformation that has taken place in Muslim societies. Sociological scholarship, on the other hand, argues that it would be difficult to understand Islam without first understanding the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the social structure of Muslim societies, which are embedded in the relationship between religion, the economy, politics, and society. This book, therefore, makes a connection between the economic system and its social and political consequences within Muslim societies. To do this, it examines the role of Islam within Muslim societies in the context of ongoing and increasingly powerful neoliberal economic processes in a globalized world. The Muslim understanding of secularism, modernity, the state, collective identity, immigration, and Islamic political thought and economic life are all shaped by forces of globalization and new market conditions. However, this is a mutually constitutive process, as Islam also influences the West and its perceptions of Islam because of the interdependent relations brought about by the global economy. These interdependencies create social and political transformation on both sides.
The Roots of the Revolution: Human Rights in the Arab World, Cairo: Cairo Institute
for Human Rights, 2010.
The report is entitled Roots of Unrest, speaking to the distinctive popular revolutions sweeping across the Arab world, which have thus far toppled two of the most entrenched police dictatorships in the region, in Egypt and Tunisia, and is striking at the seats of other dictatorships in Libya and Yemen. The uprising is also compellingly imposing the need for serious, far-reaching reforms in several states, particularly Morocco, Bahrain, and Algeria, and is having repercussions in Syria, where people are living under a tyrannical regime that barely permits its citizens to breathe.
Despite notable socio-economic development in the Arab region, a deficit in democracy and political rights has continued to prevail. This book examines the major reasons underlying the persistence of this democracy deficit over the past decades and touches on the prospects for deepening the process of democratization in the Arab World.
Contributions from major scholars in the region give a cross country analysis of economic development, political institutions and social factors, and the impact of oil wealth and regional wars, and present a model for democracy in the Arab world. Case studies are drawn from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, and the Gulf region, building on these cross-country analyses and probing beyond the model’s main global variables. Looking beyond the effect of oil and conflicts, the chapters illustrate how specific socio-political history of the country concerned, fear of fundamentalist groups, collusion with foreign powers and foreign interventions, and the co-option of the elites by the state contribute to these problems of democratization.
Situating the democratic position of the Arab World in a global context, this book is an important contribution to the field of Middle Eastern politics, development studies, and studies on conflict and democracy.
This report presents the first-ever peer review of the European Union’s external policies and practices on support for democracy and democracy-building around the world.
With the support of Sweden holding the incoming E.U. presidency, International IDEA engaged counterparts and partners of the E.U. in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab world, South Asia and Southeast Asia in a series of multi-regional consultations to get their feedback on the impact of these policies on democracy and democracy-building in their respective regions.
The E.U. seeks to be a major player in the area of democracy-building throughout the world. How can the E.U. improve its policies, its approach, and its engagement with partners in this area? International IDEA asked these questions across five regional round-table conferences, and three global meetings were encompassing all regions, including E.U. institutions. The results revealed gaps between the E.U.’s objectives and the perceptions of its partners.
“Said Kutob and his book( Landmarks on the Road ).”In Said Kutob and the Satisfaction, edited by Motaz Al-Khateeb, Cairo: Madboulie Publisher, 2009. (in Arabic).
Four more than six decades, the Arab-Israeli conflict has sent shockwaves through the Middle East. Since the founding of Israel in 1948, there have been more than half a dozen wars, endless skirmishes along the different borders, and numerous internal uprisings in the region’s countries. Moreover, the Arab-Israeli conflict, with the unresolved confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians at its epicenter, has threatened to spill over into a global confrontation on more than one occasion. It would be easy to recall how the region has slid into the abyss since the collapse of the Oslo process in the late 1990s. To conclude that the region’s future could not be any bleaker, it is only necessary to remember the al-Aqsa Intifada from 2000 onwards, the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006, or the latest war in Gaza in 2008/2009 – to name only a few of the many recent events.
“The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria: Religious, State and Democracy, in The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, pp. 81–100, Dubai: Al-Mesbar Studies and Research Centre, August 2009. (in Arabic)
- “Freedom of Association in Syria.” In Freedom of Association in the Euro- Mediterranean Region, Copenhagen: Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, 2008. (in English, Arabic, and French)
- “The Syrian Perspective Towards the 2006 Israeli–Lebanese War.” In The Israeli– Lebanese War and the Future of the Middle East, edited by Abdulmeaim Mashat and Nahed Aiz Eddin, pp. Cairo: Center for Political Research and Studies, 2008. (in Arabic)
- “Values and Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Globalization in The Muslim World in the Economic and Culture Fields, edited by Ziad Khalil Al-Dgameen, pp. Amman: Dar Al-Razie and the International Institute for Islamic Thought, 2008. (in Arabic)
- “The Future of the Democratic Movement in Syria.” In Democracy and the Current Movements of the Arab Public, edited by Ali Khalifa El-Kuwari, pp. Beirut: The Center for Arab Unity Studies, 2008. (in Arabic)
- “Transitional Justice in the Arab World.” In Human Rights Within the Framework of Criminal Justice, edited by Nezam Assaf, pp. Amman: Amman Center for Human Rights Studies, 2008. (in Arabic)
- “Accepting Cultural Diversity as a Prelude to Inter-Civilizational Dialogue.” In Civilizations and Cultural Diversity, edited by Abdulhaq Azouzie, pp. Paris: L`martun, 2008. (in Arabic, English, and French)
- “The Damascus Declaration and the Democratic Changes in Syria.” In Democratic Change Movements in Eastern Europe and the Arab World, edited by Sameh Fawze, pp. Cario: Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies, November 2007. (in Arabic)
- “Policies of Religious Inclusion in Syria.” In Religious Policies in North Africa/Near East: Are They an Instrument for Modernization?, edited by Sigrid Faath, pp. Berlin: Institute of Middle East Studies, Hamburg, 2007. (in English and German)
- “Limitations on Freedom of Expression,” In Religions and Freedom of Expression: The Predicament of Freedom in Different Societies, edited by Bahy Eddin Hasan, pp. Cairo: Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, 2007. (in English)
- “Islamists and Human Rights: The Predicament of the Universal and the Particular.”, Islamists and the Political Participation. Beirut: Center for Arab Unity Studies, 2003. (in Arabic)
- “The Conflict Over Values: Crises of ‘Universal Human Knowledge’ Between the West and Islam.” Renewing Religious Discourse, Edited By Mohammed Al-Habash . Damascus: Islamic Studies Center, 2005. (in Arabic)
- “Islamists and Human Rights.”, Human Rights: International, Islamic and Arab Perspectives. Beirut: Center for Arab Unity Studies, 2005. (in Arabic)
- “The Conflict Over Values Between the West and Islam.” Islam in a Changing World: Islamic Reform Politics after 9/11. Damascus, Dar al-Fikr, 2005. (in Arabic)
- “The Renewal of Islamic Discourse.” in The Discourse of Islamic Renewal: Time and Questions. Damascus: Dar Al-Fikr, 2003. (in Arabic and English)
- “The Clash of Civilizations: The Illusion Struggle, Negative Discourse.” The Dialogue Between Civilizations. Damascus: The Arab–Iranian Cultural Studies Center, 2001. (in Arabic)
- “Islamists and Human Rights.” in Arab Human Rights. Beirut: Center for Arab Unity Studies, 1999. (in Arabic)
Policy Papers
- “The E.U.’s Policy on Promoting Democracy in the Arab World.” International IDEA, Stockholm, Sweden, Democracy Promotion Program,2009, www.idea.org. (in English)
- “E.U. Policy Impact on the Human Rights Situation in the Middle East: Syria as an Example.” Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies, Damascus, Syria, 2010 www.dchrs.org. (in English and Arabic)
Translations
He translated more than ten books from English into Arabic, and also he supervised a project within Syrian Centre for Political and Strategic Studies to academic books on Syria from English into Arabic ten books have been published in this series:
Introductions
- Introduction to From Dictatorship to Democracy, by Gene Sharp, pp. Beirut: Arabic Scientific Publishing, Inc., 2009. (in Arabic)
- Introduction to Religions and Freedom of Expression: The Predicament of Freedom in Different Societies, edited by Rajab Saad, pp. Cairo: Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, 2007. (in Arabic)
Contributions
- Syria: Prehistory -1250, Encyclopedia of Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, edited by Orlando Patterson, J. Geoffrey Golson, SAGE in 2012.
- Syria: 1920-present, Encyclopedia of Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, edited by Orlando Patterson, J. Geoffrey Golson, SAGE in 2012.