Director of @NSLSNetwork | Researcher focused on Syria’s political economy | Published in @ForeignPolicy, @CarnegieMEC, @MiddleEastInst.
Damascus, Syria.
Joined January 2021
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“Rubble acts, to borrow James Ferguson’s phrase, as an "anti-politics machine": it recasts political choices as technical necessity, all the while facilitating its own political operation – the transfer of staggering sums of public wealth into private hands.”
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Haddon Barth retweeted
In a Dispatch for Diwan, @natacha_danon reports on local reconciliation councils in Syria, which have emerged throughout the country to mediate in intracommunal disputes, many of them byproducts of the war years. carnegieendowment.org/middle…
Haddon Barth retweeted
If you’re interested in southern Syria and the post-Dec 8 expanded Israeli occupation I highly recommend checking out my friend Fadi’s work. His publication is still developing but he has a ton of minute, on the ground knowledge of the situation
fadiibrahim.substack.com/p/t…
Haddon Barth retweeted
Seems odd that the Syrian Sovereign Fund has advertised its adoption of the Santiago Principles for sovereign wealth funds when the Fund is not, to my best understanding, a sovereign wealth fund: ssf.gov.sy/en
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Haddon Barth retweeted
"Consider, for example, the investment pitch offered by Ahmed al-Sharaa himself. “Every calamity Syria has endured in the past is an investment opportunity,” al-Sharaa [said] in Riyadh in October 2025. Syrians, he promised, would rebuild “from nothing”.
The simplistic picture of outside money entering Syria and “rebuilding [it] from nothing” bears little resemblance with reality.
Many of the announced megadeals depend on opaque arrangements through which land is transferred to developers, whether public land recovered from real or alleged Assad-era cronies and placed in the Syrian Sovereign Fund, or property assembled through reconstruction schemes imposed on small landowners.
Foreign capital cannot “rebuild” Syria without the extraction of Syrian land and future public revenues..."
By @HaddonBarth
syriaintransition.com/en/hom…
Haddon Barth retweeted
“Rubble acts, to borrow James Ferguson’s phrase, as an "anti-politics machine": it recasts political choices as technical necessity, all the while facilitating its own political operation – the transfer of staggering sums of public wealth into private hands.”
Link in Comment
Haddon Barth retweeted
Rubble as an 'Anti-Politics Machine'
Long a fixture of Syria policy writing, the metaphor has found a new political use under the Syrian authorities.
syriaintransition.com/en/hom…
Haddon Barth retweeted
@HaddonBarth: "The image of a physical blank slate, first purveyed by the policy community and now happily adopted by the authorities, thus does political work – that of depoliticising everything. Rubble acts, to... recasts political choices as technical necessity, all the while facilitating its own political operation – the transfer of staggering sums of public wealth into private hands."
syriaintransition.com/en/hom…
Haddon Barth retweeted
.@HaddonBarth for @SyriaTransition on how depictions of Syria as "rubble" – that is, a blank slate – make it easier to ignore the real politics of how Syria now rebuilds and resources are redistributed: syriaintransition.com/en/hom…
Haddon Barth retweeted
كما يمثل «الجهادي» المشهد الأمني في سوريا، ويمثل «اللاجئ» سكانها، تمثل «الأنقاض» اقتصادها. وتجعل كل صورة من هذه الصور البلاد أكثر قابلية للفهم لدى صنّاع القرار، بما يساعدهم على رسم ملامح مستقبل سوريا الاقتصادي من دون الحاجة إلى التعامل المباشر مع الناس والممتلكات والتاريخ القائم بالفعل هناك.
هادون بارث @HaddonBarth يتحدث عن الأنقاض بوصفها «آلة لتعطيل السياسة»
syriaintransition.com/ar/hom…
Haddon Barth retweeted
"As the jihadi stands in for Syria’s security landscape and the refugee for its population, rubble stands in for its economy. Each image renders the country more legible to policymakers, helping them chart Syria’s economic future without confronting the people, property, and history already there."
@HaddonBarth on the de-politicisation of discourse on aid and development.
syriaintransition.com/en/hom…
Haddon Barth retweeted
My latest for @ForeignAffairs: On Syria's acute cost-of-living crisis – which I think poses a real danger to the country's political transition – and the ways the Shara' government is making it worse: foreignaffairs.com/syria/syr…
Haddon Barth retweeted
On Thursday, a small sit-in was held in front of the Syrian parliament, the first in the capital since mass protests broke out across the country on Monday over a hike in fuel prices. Several of the protesters were subsequently arrested.
One of the organizers, who asked to remain anonymous, told me: “This call came to state from the heart of Damascus that the Syrian people have had enough. The Syrian people are starving.”
Over 90 percent of the Syrian population lives below the poverty line. Since taking power in 2024, the Syrian government has rolled back electricity and bread subsidies, leaving Syrians struggling to pay their bills.
“It is a cry for help and an attempt to bring about a positive change—toward a democratic, national direction that all Syrian people strive for,” the organizer added. “There is a lingering stagnation from the previous [regime], a decay of a system that people feel is still continuing.”
Haddon Barth retweeted
Fuel price hikes have sparked widespread protests across Syria, with anger reaching Idlib’s Maarat al-Numan, where residents say rising costs threaten livelihoods, reconstruction and the country’s agricultural sector.
My latest for @SyriaDirect
syriadirect.org/fuel-anger-e…
Haddon Barth retweeted
مجلس الشعب السوري يعلن تأجيل جلسة الاستماع لوزير الطاقة بناء على طلب مقدم من الوزارة لإعطاء فرصة لاستكمال ملفات الجلسة
-أُجّلت الجلسة من يوم الخميس 17 سبتمبر إلى يوم الأحد 20 سبتمبر
-طلب مجلس الشعب الاستماع للوزير بعد غضب شعبي من ارتفاع أسعار المحروقات
-الوزارة في وقت سابق قالت :
أن السوق السورية تتأثر بارتفاع تكلفة تأمين البنزين والمازوت والفيول عالمياً، في وقت دخلت فيه مصفاة بانياس في صيانة شاملة لنحو شهرين، ما يزيد الحاجة مؤقتاً إلى استيراد المنتجات النفطية الجاهزة.
وقالت إن الارتفاع الحالي لا يرتبط بسعر النفط الخام وحده، إذ تشهد أسواق المشتقات المكررة ضغوطاً نتيجة تراجع المعروض واضطراب طاقات التكرير وارتفاع تكاليف النقل والشحن والتأمين، ما يزيد تكلفة تأمين المشتقات للسوق السورية.
Haddon Barth retweeted
NSLS is excited to welcome @SamirAlabdullah to our Advisory Board.
Dr. Alabdallah is a Syrian academic and policy researcher specializing in modern and contemporary history. He currently leads policy analysis at the Arab Center for Contemporary Syria Studies. Before that, he served as a Syria specialist at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (ORSAM) and as a lecturer at Necmettin Erbakan University.
He holds PhDs in modern and contemporary history from Ain Shams University and Selcuk University, and his research has been published in Arabic, English, and Turkish.
We are grateful for his guidance as NSLS expands its research, support for the People’s Assembly, and work with Syrian Universities.
Haddon Barth retweeted
Continuing our introduction of NSLS’s new editorial and research team, we are delighted to welcome Lojean Hersi as Co-Head of Research.
Lojean is a PhD candidate at King’s College London, where her work focuses on transitional justice, identity, and post-authoritarian governance in Syria. Her research examines how legacies of human rights abuses shape everyday life, political attitudes and behaviours, and perceptions of justice, legitimacy, and institutional trust.
Having lived or studied across Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the UK, Lojean brings a cross-contextual perspective to her research and wider engagement with political and social issues in the SWANA region.
Haddon Barth retweeted
"وقد تؤدي الإصلاحات الجارية في النظام المالي السوري إلى زيادة حجم الائتمان المتاح، لكنها لن تضمن إتاحته على نطاق واسع إذا ظلّت العلاقات السياسية والتجارية هي التي تحدد من يحصل عليه،" يكتب @HaddonBarth
لقراءة المقال على منصتنا "كلام" ⬇️
kalam.chathamhouse.org/ar/هل-يمكن-لسوريا-إصلاح-قطاعها-المصرفي-من/
Haddon Barth retweeted
الاجتماع الأول لرؤساء اللجان الدائمة في مجلس الشعب مع مكتب المجلس
عقد مكتب مجلس الشعب الاجتماع الأول مع رؤساء اللجان الدائمة في المجلس، بحضور رؤساء اللجان الست والعشرين، لبحث آليات العمل البرلماني وتنظيم مهام اللجان خلال المرحلة المقبلة.
وتناول الاجتماع شرح آلية عمل اللجان، ومسار دراسة القوانين ومناقشتها وصياغتها، والتأكيد على الالتزام بأحكام النظام الداخلي للمجلس والاحتكام إلى القوانين النافذة في جميع مراحل العمل التشريعي.
كما استمع مكتب المجلس إلى مداخلات رؤساء اللجان وملاحظاتهم ومقترحاتهم، كلٌّ بحسب اختصاص لجنته، بما يسهم في تنظيم العمل وتوحيد آلياته.
وفي ختام الاجتماع، جرى الاتفاق على جدول وآلية العمل، وتنظيم مسار استقبال مشاريع ومقترحات القوانين، ودراستها ومناقشتها وإحالتها إلى المجلس وفق الأصول المعتمدة.
#الجمهورية_العربية_السورية
#مجلس_الشعب_السوري
