ABSTRACT
The Middle East is in the process of a generational change in leadership and
nowhere is this more striking than in Syria where the long-serving leader, Hafiz
al-Asad, has passed on power to his son, Bashar, arguably representative of a new
generation more attuned to the norms of globalization. This change follows
profound international transformations accompanying the end of the Cold War,
including the emergence of US hegemony and the drive to incorporate the
‘periphery’ into a West-centric and liberal ‘New World Order’. A major
manifestation of globalization is the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) that
seeks, among other things, to bring Middle Eastern states into conformity with
international economic norms. It has been widely anticipated that the conjunction
of globalization from without and the succession of a new generation of leaders
from within could produce sea changes in Middle East states such as Syria.
