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Why Middle Class Families Can Kill Assad
Written by Peter Hagen
Syria is beset by an historic problem of weak state institutions, with the exception of those state and quasi-state forces through which the ruling Assad dynasty has exercised its power. The account offered by Seth Kaplan in A New U.S. Policy For Syria: Fostering Political Change in a Divided State offers […]
Read all posts for ‘Conflicts’
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Gay girl in Damascus: A taboo ignominy feeding to a white fantasy
Written by Aown Kaz
Biographical blog describing life in Syria amid the current political instability, supposedly written by a struggling gay woman has been revealed to be a hoax. Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari a 25-year-old, half-Syrian, half American lesbian living in Damascus documented her life in a blog entitled “Gay Girl in Damascus”, dating back to […]
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Egyptian civil society: a bellwether for the Arab Spring?
Written by Tom Fries
Did civil society in Egypt presage the uprisings in the Maghreb? Issandr El Amrani suggests that that might be the case, writing in a blog on foreignpolicy.com: “Egyptian Civil Society at Risk”. Read more
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Syria: Tracking protests with Ushahidi
Written by Tom Fries
The Technology for Transparency Network, an NGO, is tracking protests in Syria using Ushahidi, an open-source tool for tracking and mapping crowdsourced information. Read more
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ICBL Landmines Monitor
Written by Tom Fries
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is one of the most successful examples of an international, “loose-affiliation” NGO. See how they continue their work through a decentralized model. Read more
