- 03 Apr 2014
WHAT SYRIA TELLS US ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD
ABSTRACT
Syria isn’t an ugly conflict between sects and tribes in a forsaken corner of the world. Syria is a mirror in which the world reflects itself — an ugly image it would be well advised to ponder. Among other things, the Syrian crisis reveals the full depth of the Arab world’s political bankruptcy, the collapse of any regional security framework, and the accelerated erosion of the international system of governance as established after the second world war and consolidated in the aftermath of the cold war. Peter Harling, who has spent years working in and on Syria, and continues to conduct fieldwork there, will look back at events and share his thoughts in this broader perspective.
About the Speakers
Senior Adviser for MENA
International Crisis Group (Cairo and Damascus)
Peter John Harling is the special advisor for the Middle East at the International Crisis Group based in Cairo and Damascus, an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict, where he has worked in other appointments since 2005. He is also the advisor to Lakhdar Brahimi, the joint United Nations and Arab League special envoy to Syria. Previously, he was an expert on a committee for the prevention of conflict from 2009 to 2013 in the Chirac Foundation based in Paris, and was a reporter in Iraq (under the pseudonym David Baran) from 2002 to 2006 for monthly newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique.
He obtained his doctorate and MSc in Political Science at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He was also an associate researcher at both Baghdad University and Institut Français du Proche Orient at Damascus.
He is the author of two French books on Iraq, both written under pseudonyms: Vivre la tyrannie et lui survivre: L’Irak en transition (Living Under Tyranny and Surviving It: Iraq in Transition) and Saddam Hussein, maître des mots: Du langage de la tyrannie à la tyrannie du langage (Saddam Hussein, Master of Words: from the Language of Tyranny to the Tyranny of Language). He has also written in and edited other academic works, primarily involving Syria and Iraq.
His articles have appeared in various publications, including Foreign Affairs, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Le Figaro, International Herald Tribune and Al-Hayat. He has also been interviewed by numerous media outlets, such as Al-Jazeera, Bloomberg, Der Spiegel, France 2 and The New York Times.
