Cammett on NPR: Dealing with Dictators

January 5, 2012

"There's got to be a way to manage resentment so that people aren't in unregulated revenge mode." Recently on NPR, Brown Middle East Studies Program Director Melani Cammett bluntly assessed conflict swirling around Arab leaders ousted from power or under pressure to leave.

Turning to Syria, for instance, Cammett remarked that "as time goes on, Assad is probably making a calculation that he has so much to lose he has to fight like crazy to hold on." The NPR segment also cited the work of a UN commission, led by long-time Watson Institute associate Paulo Pinheiro, which found that Syrian security forces loyal to Assad had killed hundreds of children and perpetrated other "crimes against humanity."

Cammett, who is leading a research pilot on Human Security in the Middle East at the Watson Institute, will be hosting a conference on Arab revolutions and scholarship here in April.