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Left to its Domestic Devices: How the Syrian Regime Boxed Itself In WP43-2005 - 3.10.2005 Bassam Haddad [1] Seasoned observers of Syria’s political economy have learned not to make much of apparent political changes there. This lesson holds today, but with a twist. Five years after the death of al-Asad senior, hopes, proclamations, and a series of promised ‘springs’ have gone unrealised. Economically, Syria’s growth has been lagging, with an increasingly narrowing window of opportunity in terms of its dwindling (known) oil reserves and the dearth of higher skills within the labour market. While stable, Syria’s political institutions are stagnant, including the slightly refurbished ruling Baath party, which continues to rule by reshuffling elites, not by restructuring the polity. Perhaps the most troubling part of Syria’s predicament is the seemingly invisible but actually growing wave of unprecedented social poverty in its recent history.
Europeanisation without Europe? A critical reflection on the Neighbourhood Policy for the Mediterranean WP23-2005 - 6.6.2005 (Translation from Spanish) Gonzalo Escribano The Neighbourhood Policy is the European Union (EU) approach towards its new geographical borders in the wake of enlargement. This new focus is global in nature and aims to integrate EU foreign policies with its various neighbours under a common and coherent strategic umbrella
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