The Syrian Uprising
the economy of political violence

Professor Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East Studies Program and teaches in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University, and is Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Stanford's Program for Good Governance and Political Reform in the Arab World. Bassam is the Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute, an umbrella for four organizations dealing with knowledge production on the Middle East.

He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience. Bassam recently published The Political Economy of Syria: Realities and Challenges. Bassam serves on the Editorial Committee of Middle East Report and is Co-Founder/Editor of jadaliyya.com ezine.

He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of a critically acclaimed film series on Arabs and Terrorism, based on extensive field research/interviews. More recently, he directed a film on Arab/Muslim immigrants in Europe, titled The Other Threat.  

About the Book
"Bassam Haddad has produced a path-breaking study of Syria's political economy. With unequalled access to first hand sources, his work highlights the underlying political logics that have shaped Syria's economy since the rise of the Baath Party to power half a century ago. He gives us unique insight into the relationships and connections around which the Syrian economy is organized and underscores the economic price that Syrians have paid as development strategies were subordinated to the demands of regime survival."
           —Steven Heydemann, U.S. Institute of Peace

"A courageous and sophisticated account of the role of Syria's crony capitalist networks in the process of partial privatization after 1986. Revealed for the first time are the key relationships which define Syria's economic performance over the last two and a half decades. This book could only have been written by someone with insider knowledge of Syria."
           —Roger Owen, Harvard University

Sponsored by Department of Middle East Studies, University of Toronto

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Need to know:
- Doors open at 6:15
- Donation $5 for non-UofT affiliated
- Accessible on demand via portable ramp; washrooms not accessible
- Please avoid using strong-scented products due to sensitivities