Steven Heydemann serves as Senior Adviser for Middle East Initiatives at the U.S. Institute of Peace. From 2003 to 2007, Heydemann directed the Center for Democracy and Civil Society at Georgetown University. He is coeditor with Reinoud Leenders of the forthcoming volume with Stanford University Press (October 2012): Middle East Authoritarianisms: Governance, Contestation, and Regime Resilience in Syria and Iran
-
Published in: HomeSyria's crisis: a credible threat is what is neededThe escalation of regime violence is not a response to the rise of an armed opposition, but the reaction of the Assad regime to a popular uprising that has demonstrated remarkable resilience. Without a credible threat, ‘Weapons vs. Negotiations’ is a false choice. Also in this oS Analysis debate:Mariano Aguirre, on why force would intensify the conflict. Read Mariano Aguirre’s response to this critique, and Robert Matthews on the decades-long consequences of militarization.