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SUMMARY:The chaos (fawḍà) Bashshar al-Asad warned against – Damascus 
 University 10th November 2005 – and present-day Syria - Professor Johann
 es Waardenburg (IULM)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250221T170000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250221T183000Z
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/52b6d1eb-03c1-409e-90fa-55139071daa2/
DESCRIPTION:With the fall of the al-Asad dynasty in Syria in the early hou
 rs of Sunday 8th December 2024\, nearly fourteen years after the start of 
 the Arab Spring\, a question arises: Has the warning given by Bashshar al-
 Asad in his speech at Damascus University in the autumn of 2005 come true?
  Have his departure and the breakdown of al-muqāwamah wa-l-ṣumūd - ide
 ntified commonly as the strategy of resistance - really brought chaos to t
 he region? If that is not the case\, why did the decisive actors keep him 
 in power in Syria for approximatively another 20 years after he made that 
 presentation? Imagining al-Asad bluffed while he felt the whole internatio
 nal community was after him in the 2005 follow-up to the murder of Rafīq 
 al-Ḥarīrī\, the Prime Minister who oversaw Lebanon's reconstruction\, 
 why did no one at the time call his bluff out? Rather\, looking at the rem
 arkably rapid reintroduction of Bashshar al-Asad to the international scen
 e after 2005\, this presentation will try to assess critically what the ch
 aos was that everyone was afraid of in the event of the al-Asads falling t
 hen. Why does this same chaos seem manageable now? Have Western actors tog
 ether with Turkey and the Gulf countries simply studied the regional setup
  better\, or might the incidence of Israel's forever war strategy have bee
 n a decisive factor for others to make a shift unthinkable until recently\
 , for the sake of the future of the region.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Johannes
  Waardenburg (IULM)
LOCATION:St Antony's College (Investcorp Lecture Theatre)\, 62 Woodstock R
 oad OX2 6JF
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/52b6d1eb-03c1-409e-90fa-55139071daa2/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:The chaos (fawḍà) Bashshar al-Asad warned against – 
 Damascus University 10th November 2005 – and present-day Syria - Profess
 or Johannes Waardenburg (IULM)
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