Joshua Landis
Joshua Landis
Joshua M. Landisis an American academic who specializes in the Middle East and is an expert on Syria. He is the head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and since 2004 has published the blog Syria Comment...
bargain bargaining guarantees held people trying worried
They are worried their people will be held in Lebanon. They are trying to get guarantees this is not going to be out of their control. They want to bargain but have no bargaining power.
home
I don't know know how they're going to get Saad Hariri back home.
change falls grab isolation squeeze syria syrian throat
They are going to grab Syria by the throat and squeeze and shake, and see what kind of change falls out of the Syrian pockets.... It's going to be the harshest isolation they can manufacture.
close dark people period president struggle
Syria's in for a very dark period ahead, ... The president is in a real struggle to keep people close to him.
broad contacts cooperation diplomatic looking promising scale slow syria
Syria is looking for more time. It is promising cooperation on a broad scale but has launched diplomatic contacts to try to slow things down,
offered religious secular serious syria vision
It offered a secular vision of Syria that would dismantle very serious religious splits.
It's a declaration that they're not going to cooperate.
bring economic force movement reforms syria toward troubles unlikely
There?s been no movement toward democracy. The economic troubles Syria confronts will force reforms, but it?s unlikely that economic reforms will bring more democracy.
alienated america bad believe countries guess muslim ogre position specter terror war weaker
This is an anti-America alliance. My guess is that the US will end up in a weaker position than it started. The war on terror has alienated the Muslim countries who now believe that America is the big bad ogre and specter of imperialism.
doubt family red
The family is a red line. There's no doubt about that.
eat pay price privileges revenge state worry
They worry they are the ones that are going to eat all the revenge and discrimination, if the state falls, they are going to pay the price for the privileges of a few.
debates decades middle period short society stakes
In the Middle East, they're being compressed, catapulted through the same debates that tore American society over decades in a short period of time. And the stakes are very high.