What do we really know about the Syrian crisis? Given the press distortions and partisan accounts from both sides, it is not an easy question to answer. In the words of a professional risk analyst speaking at a recent seminar in Germany, it is comparable to what we can know about a hippopotamus in water: after all, what we see are only its ears and eyes. Indeed, fourteen months after the outbreak of demonstrations in Syria, anyone who claims to know how the crisis will evolve and where it will ultimately lead is either endowed with super-human capabilities or is submerged deep into the water, with goggles, an oxygen mask, and measuring instruments capable of measuring the beast’s heartbeat and other vital signs.
The seminar, entitled, “Syria in Civil War: the Multiethnic State Put to the Test” (“Syrien im Bürgerkrieg: der Vielvölkerstaat in der Zerreißprobe”), was organized by the German-Arab Society together with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation on May 17-18, in the Theodor-Heuss Akademie in Gummersbach, Germany. Read further...

Tag: Deutsch-Arabischen Gesellschaft, Fadwa Suleiman, Barbara Brustlein, Missio, Samir Matar, Ralf Erbel, Sadiqu Al-Mousllie, Erik Mohns, Ulrich Kienzle, Susanne Osthoff, Heinrich Matthée, Gerhard Fulda