Syrian Economic , Osama Kadi

Wanted: A Plan to Rebuild Syria

With no end in sight to a war that started six years ago, has claimed more than 465,000 lives, and displaced millions, it is fair to ask when is the right time to launch a much-needed effort to rebuild Syria. Should this effort start now, while the country is still ravaged by war, or once…

Syrian Economic, Syria Economy, Rebuild Syria, Osama Kadi

The Mirage of Doing Business and Politics in the Middle East

Doing business in various countries of the region, both on an individual and institutional basis, is faced with mounting challenges in varying degrees. These challenges include, but are not limited to, the resistance posed by civil society, parliamentary elites and average citizens to work with business figureheads, as well as the fear of involving criminal…

The collapse of the Syrian economy

Economic sanctions have not toppled Bashar al-Assad. He has fought tooth and nail for the seat of power he inherited, even though the price has been more than 200,000 people killed, 11 million displaced and economic losses that have exceeded $200 billion. The economic cost has been high: the Syrian economy has effectively been destroyed…

UPF Conference Addresses Crisis in Syria

Larnaca, Cyprus—UPF convened the conference, “Syria: Opening Lines of Communication and Soft Power Approaches to Peace,” in Cyprus from December 17 to 19, 2016. Amidst the background of global despair and disbelief at the wholesale destruction that heralded the fall of Aleppo in Syria, UPF set modest goals for the conference, aware that doing the…

Syria beats German Crisis in World War II

Pictures captured by drones show massive devastation in Aleppo, the economic capital of Syria and its second largest city. Same as in Homs and Jobar in Damascus, the pictures of these three cities reveal the painful scene of Syria caused by war and by five years of aggressive bombing that destroyed vital facilities, population blocs,…

Syrian Economic, Syria Economy, Rebuild Syria, Osama Kadi

Shocking numbers that sum up Syrian Civil War

IT REPRESENTS the greatest humanitarian challenge of our time. Five years of intense fighting has plunged a once vibrant country into darkness. The destruction and despair wrought by the Syrian Civil War has caused a “systematic” obliteration of infrastructure and population. Such is the backward direction of the country, that from 2010 to 2015, the…