Hello, you're listening to the LRB podcast, and I'm your host, Adam Shatz.

The subject of this week's episode, part of an ongoing

series of discussions about the convulsions reshaping the Middle Eastern order, is the situation

in Syria. For those of you who haven't been following the events closely, only a month ago,

Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by a rebel coalition, bringing to a close, or at least opening a new chapter in the conflict that broke out with the anti-regime protests of 2011.

Syria has been liberated from the more than 50-year Ba'athist tyranny, imposed by Hafez al-Assad and perpetuated by his son.

Tens of thousands of political prisoners are walking free, and Syrian exiles are slowly returning from Turkey, Jordan, and Europe.

At the same time, the future remains highly uncertain.

The new authorities are Islamists, some with roots in al-Qaeda

and other jihadist groups. External powers are exerting their muscle, including Turkey,

a major backer of the rebels and Israel, which is seized upon Syria's instability,

as an opportunity to eliminate the country's defensive capacity and to occupy even more of the Golan Heights.

Joining me on this episode to shed light on these events in the context of Syria's history

are Lubna Emrae, an activist and writer who took part in Syria's democratic opposition

before fleeing the country more than a decade ago, and Omar Dahi,

a professor of economics at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, and director of security and

context, a research network on peace, conflict, and international affairs. Thank you for joining

me, Lubna and Omar. Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

The war was long and cruel, but when the fall of the regime came, it came very quickly, so quickly, and with so many regional repercussions, that it seems to me that once again the Syrian people have been forgotten.

So I wonder if we might start by talking about what the overthrow of the Assad dictatorship has meant for Syrians and how this moment

of liberation, however tentative, however uncertain, has been lived by them. Libna, would you like

...