Hussein Aboubakr Mansour on the Fall of Syria and the Death of Baathism: How Arab intellectuals understand the latest ideological revolution

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On March 8, 1963, the Baath party overthrew the government of Syria, and since then the Assad family has ruled the country—until last weekend, when the son of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad, fled to Russia. The 60-year Baathist domination of Syria came to an end, deposed by a Sunni Islamist organization called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Whereas many current conversations are, appropriately, focused on the military and political revolution that Syrians are now living through, the ideological revolution deserves equal consideration. There is no way of knowing how long the current government in Syria, or the Syrian state as we know it, will endure. We don’t know if the new regime will be just and serve its people well, or whether it will be corrupt and tyrannical. We don’t know how Syria will relate to the West, to America, or to Israel. But by recovering the ideological genealogy of Baathism, from which Syria’s present rulers fought to free their country, we can begin to try to understand Arab politics the way that Arab intellectuals do. To that end, Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver is joined by Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, a writer, student of the modern Middle East, and senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On March 8, 1963, the Ba'ath Party overthrew the government of Syria, and ever since,
0:13.2	the Assad family has ruled the country, until earlier this week, when the son of Hafez al-Assad,
0:19.4	Bashar al-Assad, fled the country to Russia.
0:22.6	The 60-year bathist domination of Syria came to an end.
0:27.0	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. The government of Syria was
0:31.8	deposed by a Sunni Islamist organization called Hayat Tahr al-Sham, abbreviated colloquially in English as H-T-S.
0:40.9	This week I'm joined by the Egyptian-American student of the modern Middle East, the writer and analyst
0:45.6	Hussein Abu Bakr Mansour. Hussein is a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign
0:51.2	Affairs, and he joins us to discuss the fall of the Assad regime and the
0:55.6	birth of a new Syria. Now, there are many such conversations taking place just now, and for good
1:01.1	reason. But whereas many are focusing on the military and political revolution that Syrians are
1:06.6	living through, my focus with Hussein is on the ideological revolution that's taking place in Syria.
1:12.9	Rather than examining the events of the last week through the lens of power, we add to that
1:17.9	also the role of ideas and political thought. There's no way of knowing how long the current
1:23.5	government in Syria will endure, or whether indeed the state of Syria will endure as we know
1:28.2	it. We don't know if the character of that government will be just and serve its people well,
1:33.0	or whether it will be corrupt. We don't know how Syria will relate to the West, to America,
1:38.6	or to Israel. But by recovering the ideological genealogy that led to Bathist rule, the ideology in opposition to which
1:46.2	Syria's present rulers fought and freed their country, we can begin to try to understand Arab
1:51.7	politics the way that some Arab intellectuals do. If you enjoyed this conversation,
1:56.4	you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify. I hope you'll leave us a five-star
2:02.3	review to help us grow this community of ideas. I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tikvah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tikvah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.