When Arab Spring swept the region, Syria’s President Bashar al-Asad thought that he was safe. Over the previous five years, the moderate opposition had been crushed. Unlike Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya, Syria had taken an anti-US stance since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Syrians were used to living under sanctions and being called “terrorists.” Asad told Brad and Angelina that he did not need personal security, because ordinary Syrians were protecting him. The Syrian president was convinced that Syrians loved him.

And not only Syrians. Vogue agreed in its March 2011 puff piece that described Asad's wife as a "rose in the desert." What of Syrian naysayers? Asad counted on his ruthless and all-seeing mukhabarat to keep them in line.

Tackling politics, society, religion, and economy, Syria - A Decade of Lost Chances explores the eleven years of Asad’s rule between the clampdown on Damascus Spring in 2001 and the challenge of escalating street protests in the wake of the Arab Spring in 2011 and 2012.

Author Carsten Wieland interviewed the major opposition figures year by year over this decade. A valuable complement to the growing body of indigenous reporting (youtube videos, blog commentary), Syria - A Decade of Lost Chances provides context and expert insight that reveals the essential struggle unfolding here between the Mediterranean and the TigrisRiver.

Log In | or Sign up to buy this book

Log In | or Sign up to reply

Log in to reply

cunepress (Cune Press) 349 days ago

“Carsten Wieland plumbs the contradictions of contemporary Syrian life and politics. He was among the first Westerners... in the early years of Bashar’s presidency... to interview Syrian opposition members as well as government officials. He explored the reasons that many young Syrians had such high expectations of their young president even as so many reviled the government and the Baath Party for its corruption and repression. Their expectations, we now know, were dashed. Wieland is even-handed and measured; he knows Arabic and has lived in Syria for years. Better yet, he listens. Syria - A Decade of Lost Chances is timely and important. Everyone interested in Syria should read this book.” —Joshua Landis Director, Center for Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma and Founder of SyriaComment (www.SyriaComment.com)

Log In | or Sign up to reply

Log in to reply

cunepress (Cune Press) 349 days ago

“…since Bashar Al-Assad became President in June 2000. The early hope for change toward pluralism and democracy—a Damascene spring—was not fulfilled. The tragic story of an unflinching opposition struggling for democracy against a rigid authoritarian minority regime lead by the Assad clan is told on the basis of many interviews with leading figures of the opposition while describing the savage repression of a regime which cannot reform itself and is still not willing to give up its power and privileges. “… readers who want a better understanding of the root causes of Syria’s ongoing revolts, will be enthralled by this vivid account of Syria’s recent political history since Bashar Al Assad became President in July 2000.” —Gunter Mulack, President of the German Orient Institute Past German ambassador to Syria