Radwan Ziadeh is a co-founder of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington, DC and served as its executive director in 2008. He is also the founder and was director in 2005 of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Syria. Previously, Mr. Ziadeh served as editor in-chief of Tyarat magazine in 2001-2002 and was secretary of the Syrian Organization for Transparency. He was a researcher with the UNDP project “Syria 2025” and was named best researcher in the Arab world in political science by Jordan’s Abdulhameed Shoman Foundation in 2004. Ziadeh has been one of the major players in “Damascus Spring,” a period of intense debate about politics and social issues and calls for reform in Syria after the death of President Hafez al-Assad in 2000.
He has written ten books including, most recently, The clash of values between Islam and the West, with Kevin James O’Toole (2009); Political Islam in Syria (2008); and Decision Making and Foreign Policy in Syria (2007) and has edited an additonal five, most recently, with George Irani, The Democratic Transition between Spain and Syria (2009). Mr. Ziadeh is a frequent political commentator to several U.S., European, and Middle Eastern media sources, including Aljazeera, Alarabiya, the B.B.C., and Alhura. He is also writes a bimonthly op-ed for the leading Arab daily Al-Hayat.
