Bashar al-Asad, December 2010--irony intended

Remarks in Damascus to visiting faculty and students from Univ. of California-Berkeley:

“I do not know if people would call me a dictator,” Assad said, when asked to comment on his
leadership style. “Go out into the streets and ask the people if I am their dictator."

“I appreciate different points of view in my government,” he said, in response to an inquiry about his early push for progressive reform in Syria, a push that came to a curious halt a number of years ago. The question suggested that perhaps Assad is contending with beneficiaries of the status quo. “I’m concerned with how to bring the whole society to the [political] middle or left,” he said. “And yes, not everyone agrees with me.”

Ryan C. Crocker will be the next U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan

No living U.S. diplomat can rival Ryan Crocker's record for service in difficult posts, often at the most trying an dangerous times.  His posts have included Afghanistan (one prior assignment), Iran, Iraq (three times, once as the ambassador), Kuwait (as ambassador), Lebanon (twice, once as ambassador), Pakistan (as ambassador), and Syria (as ambassador).

Last autumn he delivered the inaugural lecture for the Boston University Institute for Iraqi Studies.  Here is the link to the video.

R.I.P. Tony Judt (2 January 1948 – 6 August 2010)

Tony Judt was widely admired for his intellectual courage, his keen mind and his contempt for self-justifying dogmas, particularly those that deployed to rationalize collective pain and cruelty.  He not only wrote pungently of Communism, but of Israel as well.  His prescient and remarkable 2003 NYRB essay remains essential reading for understanding Zionism's failure.

Adam Shatz offers a fitting and affectionate appreciation of Judt's intellectual honesty and his legacy.

Labor Protests in Egypt

Noteworthy report from the Arab Reform Initiative

The second annual report of the Arab Reform Initiative has just been released. The first report remains available. The reports include analytical studies, particularly noteworthy for the Maghrib, systematic data, and a ranking of the reform progress of ten Arab states based on 40 evaluative dimensions. The latest report shows some limited progress, with Jordan scoring 620 points on a 1,000 point scale. Jordan is followed by Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, Kuwait, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, with Saudi Arabia bringing up the end of the column of slowly reforming states. The report emphasizes that the institutional apparatus of democratic reform are often in place, but the will to implement change remains weak.

“Transnational Currents in the Gulf”--March 25-6, 2010 at Boston University

U.S. interests need to be disentangled from Israel's contempt for a two-state solution

And the White House weighs in again--David Axelrod: "... it is important for our own security that we move forward and resolve this very difficult issue."