Press Release
An audio recording from Bassam Haddad, Associate Professor, School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs, and Director, Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, George Mason University and Michael C. Hudson, MEI Visiting Scholar, Spring 2015.
On April 3, 2015 at MEI, Professors Bassam Haddad and Michael C. Hudson sat down to discuss the themes in Dr. Haddad's recent lecture in the Spring 2015 study group Rethinking the Arab State, led by Dr. Hudson, titled "The Syrian State: a Stateless Regime or State with Many Regimes?" They explored the many dimensions of the Syrian conflict, including the demise of the state as it existed before the 2011 uprising and the murky nature of sovereignty and competitors for statehood in Syria today. Haddad and Hudson assessed Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian regime's current level of control and capabilities against the power of the fragmented opposition. They also discussed ISIS' involvement in the Syrian mix, the often forgotten, unarmed civilian opposition inside Syria, and what lies ahead for Syria's many competing regimes in 2015 and beyond.
Listen to the full recording of the conversation here:
For a recording of Dr. Haddad's full lecture, click here.
About Bassam Haddad:
Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East Studies Program and Associate Professor at the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs (SPGIA) at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and Co-Editor of Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order? (Pluto Press, 2012).
Bassam serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal a peer-reviewed research publication and is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of a critically acclaimed film series on Arabs and Terrorism, based on extensive field research/interviews. Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and the Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute, an umbrella for five organizations dealing with knowledge production on the Middle East. He serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Journal.