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About Carsten Wieland

Carsten Wieland is a political consultant and journalist, specialising in the middle east. His latest book is A Decade of Lost Chances: Repression and Revolution from Damascus Spring to Arab Spring (Cune Press, 2012). He studied history, political science, international relations and philosophy at Humboldt University (Berlin), Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) and Duke University (North Carolina), before working as a research fellow at Georgetown University (Washington). He is the author of Syria - Ballots or Bullets? Democracy, Islamism and Secularism in the Levant (CUNE Press, 2006) and Syria at Bay: Secularism, Islamism and ‘Pax Americana' (C Hurst, 2005). His website is here

Articles by Carsten Wieland

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Rosemary Bechler edits openDemocracy's main site.

Parvati Nair directs the United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility.

Cameron Thibos edits Mediterranean Journeys in Hope.

En Liang Khong is assistant editor at openDemocracy.

Alex Sakalis is the editor of Can Europe Make It?

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The secretive EU-US trade deal explained

Syria, a decade of lost chances

Carsten Wieland 29 August 2012

The brutal response of Syria's authorities to an eruption of protest in early 2011 propelled the country into conflict. It was the latest and most catastrophic of a series of misjudgments by Bashar al-Assad's regime over the decade of his rule, says Carsten Wieland.

Syria: a tale of missed opportunity

Carsten Wieland 4 October 2011

The intellectual ground for an Arab democratic revolution was prepared in Syria a decade ago. But Syria’s leadership wasted the chances for a soft transition, says Carsten Wieland.

Turkey's political-emotional transition

Carsten Wieland 6 October 2009

Turkey is engaged in a renegotiation between its pro-west commitments and its family ties to east and south. This is part of a wider shift in regional relationships and perspectives, says Carsten Wieland.

The Gaza war and the Syria-Israel front

Carsten Wieland 5 February 2009

The strategic and diplomatic fallout from the war Gaza leaves the future of a major regional peace initiative open, says Carsten Wieland.

The Syria-Israel talks: old themes, new setting

Carsten Wieland 29 May 2008

The latest phase of negotiations between Damascus and Jerusalem will need the right constellation of events to become more than another lost opportunity, says Carsten Wieland.

(This article was first published on 27 May 2008)

The Syrian conundrum

Carsten Wieland 16 April 2007

Robert G Rabil's book reveals a Syria-United States relationship more changeable and nuanced than post-9/11 rhetoric indicates, says Carsten Wieland.

Syria's quagmire, al-Assad's tunnel

Carsten Wieland 9 November 2006

The Damascus regime has survived the fallout of war in Iraq and turmoil in Lebanon, but a closer look suggests that Bashar al-Assad's time is running out, argues Carsten Wieland.