The following video is a recording of the Panel that launched the English version of the report “Justice to Transcend Conflict” in Syria, produced by the Syrian Center for Policy Research. The launch is co-sponsored by Jadaliyya and Status/الوضع, and the report will soon be published by Tadween Publishing.
Justice to Transcend Conflict is part of a series of reports that provide multidimensional analyses of impact of the armed conflict in Syria between 2011 and 2019, examining the country's socio-economic situation and institutional performance. This report diagnoses the conflict based on a Human Status Framework that assesses the interlinkages between institutional, social, and economic factors on macro, meso, and local levels. The report also frames the conflict through a social justice lens and provides alternatives based on expert-developed participatory approaches.
Speakers
Ramia Ismail is an economist and researcher at the Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR). Her areas of research include economic policies and development issues in Syria. Ismail worked for the Ministry of Finance in Syria as a coordinator of the Value-added Tax Project between 2004-2005. From 2009-2011 she worked as a macroeconomic expert for the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ). Ismail is involved in several UN and international organization projects, including UNICEF. She holds a MSc in Economics of the Middle East from Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany, a MSc in Economic Policy for Developing and Transitional Economies from University of Bradford, UK, and a Diploma in Population and Development from Damascus University.
Omar S. Dahi is a co-editor of Jadaliyya and an associate professor of economics at Hampshire College and co-director of the Peacebuilding and State building program and research associate at the Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research interests are in the political economy of development in the Middle East, South-South relations, comparative regionalism, peace and conflict studies, and critical security studies. He has published in academic outlets such as the Journal of Development Economics, Applied Economics, Southern Economic Journal, Political Geography, Middle East Report, Forced Migration Review, and Critical Studies on Security. His last book South-South Trade and Finance in the 21st Century: Rise of the South or a Second Great Divergence (co-authored with Firat Demir) explores the ambiguous developmental impact of the new economic linkages among countries of the global South. He has served on the editorial collective of Middle East Report and is a co-founder and co-director of the Beirut School for Critical Security Studies working group at the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS). Dahi is also the founder and director of the Security in Context initiative.
Rabie Nasser is an economist, researcher and co-founder of the Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR). His areas of expertise and research include macroeconomic policies, inclusive growth, poverty, and conflict socioeconomic impact assessment. He holds a MSc in Economics from Leicester University, UK. Before joining the SCPR, Nasser worked for the State Planning Commission as chief economist and director general of the Macroeconomic Management Directorate between 2004-2005. He later worked as an economic researcher for the Arab Planning Institute in Kuwait. Since 2008, he leads several United Nations research projects.
Moderator
Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of the forthcoming book, A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine. Bassam is Co-Project Manager for the Salon Syria Project and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).
[This release is co-sponsored by Jadaliyya and Tadween Publishing, which will be publishing the report]