Sascha Ruppert-Karakas

Authoritarianism, Syria, Political Theory / PhD / research associate @GSI_Muenchen / bylines @syriatransition @aljumhuriya_eng @blaetter @zenith_online

[Sascha Ruppert-Karakas @SashRu88]

I'm very pleased to announce that my dissertation, 'The Politics of Antagonism: On the Dynamics of Authoritarian Social Space in Assad's Syria' (GER), has now been published by @DunckerHumblot .

The book can be ordered via this link:

https://t.co/SbBSq3uIDx

#Syria

[Syria in Transition @SyriaTransition]

School is where children first encounter state authority in a sustained way: through everyday discipline, hierarchy and the regulation of speech and behaviour. In Assad’s Syria, this meant taking first steps in a system where violence, corruption and opportunistic spying on others were treated as practical virtues. What’s left of it?
https://t.co/0SJcNtfUX5

[Fadel Abdul Ghany @FADELABDULGHANY]

Just Security has published “Syria’s Accountability Gap: The Najib Trial and the Case for the ICC,” a new analysis by Fadel Abdulghany and Kenneth Roth, as part of the publication’s ongoing series on Syria in Transition. The article examines the first criminal trial against a senior official of former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which opened in Damascus in April 2026 and where at least ten charges were read out the following month, and argues that while the proceedings mark a welcome step toward justice, flaws in the trial expose a deeper contradiction in the transitional government’s approach to accountability. The authors contend that the domestic and international tracks of justice are complementary and that the government’s refusal to pursue both undermines each.

[Aaron Y. Zelin @azelin]

Great replacement theory - late 1850s Ottoman Syria

[Al-Jumhuriya English @aljumhuriya_eng]

“There is an atmosphere of massacre hanging over central and western Syria, and those who close their eyes to it are primarily deceiving themselves.”

🖊 Sadek Abdul Rahman

https://t.co/zHRkeeMkXU

[Sascha Ruppert-Karakas @SashRu88]

In the second part of my series for @SyriaTransition , I shift from curriculum to the institution of the school itself: how classrooms under Assad trained authority, surveillance, & corruption as everyday social practice & why that legacy still matters.

https://t.co/hXpGGUVZdZ

[Aymenn J Al-Tamimi @ajaltamimi]

My latest for @SyriaTransition. On tendency among pro-govt observers & analysts to brush aside Suwayda' massacres & divert conversation towards: 'Hijri is the real villain', with talking points that have some validity but frequently veer into exaggeration https://t.co/Ygnjwc3glW

[Aaron Y. Zelin @azelin]

Lessons in obedience: How Syria’s schools reproduced authoritarian rule beyond the classroom https://t.co/B1BhFH5ezH

[Sascha Ruppert-Karakas @SashRu88]

In the second part of my series for @SyriaTransition , I shift from curriculum to the institution of the school itself: how classrooms under Assad trained authority, surveillance, & corruption as everyday social practice & why that legacy still matters.

https://t.co/hXpGGUVZdZ

[الجمهورية.نت @aljumhuriya_net]

مهم، غني بالتفاصيل، غير اختزالي، وغير منحاز، ويلبي طلباً نامياً على استجماع التاريخ السوري الحديث.
ياسين الحاج صالح، في تعليقات على كتاب دانيال نيب «سورية، تاريخ حديث».
🔗https://t.co/EEeGdX11bk

[Yassin Al Haj Saleh @Yassinhs]

My comments on Daniel Beep’s book: Syria, A Modern History

[Carlotta Gall @carlottagall]

We are covering the trial of Khaled al-Halabi and Musab Abu Rukbah, former Assad security officials charged with war crimes in Vienna. https://t.co/Zwc0QJx0Xg

[Aaron Y. Zelin @azelin]

Remnants of Assad's chemical weapons program recovered, Syrian official says https://t.co/ErRAyUYGPn

[Syria in Transition @SyriaTransition]

For decades, Syria’s schools quietly sustained authoritarian rule, instilling habits of obedience. Today, as the country embarks on a political transition, the classroom offers a revealing test: not just of what has changed in the curriculum, but of how much of the old system still endures beneath the surface.

https://t.co/Tp9IQpJ4Y0

[ETANA @ETANA_Syria]

The current stabilization-first approach to Syria’s transition is enabling new elites to rebuild the state in their own image.

https://t.co/R9pIhTG80J

[Sascha Ruppert-Karakas @SashRu88]

In part one of my series for @SyriaTransition, I look at how #Assad’s schools sustained rule through didactics. From “National Education” to history, schools trained obedience, conspiracy thinking, and enemy-centred frames. What changed—and what endures?
https://t.co/FT6S7yrP7T

[Aymenn J Al-Tamimi @ajaltamimi]

My latest for @SyriaTransition: how Ministry of Information deals w/foreign journalists,incl.decision-making behind issuing & renewing permits,ambiguity on red-lines & self-censorship risks.Relevant in light of recent celebration of World Press Freedom Day https://t.co/Kt8ZUQFiVm

[Syria in Transition @SyriaTransition]

Our May issue is out.

Inside:

☑️ Performance legitimacy: Polling shows growing public anger with high prices and poor services. Privatisation of healthcare might make things worse
☑️ Guided freedom: How foreign journalists can - or cannot - work in Syria
☑️ Classroom revolution? What education reveals about the state of Syria’s transition
☑️ Growth on paper: Syria’s 2026 budget promises recovery but puts pressure on the business sector
☑️ The Truth Guardians: A conversation with Farouq Habib

https://t.co/ohyIN8q4Og

[Sascha Ruppert-Karakas @SashRu88]

In part one of my series for @SyriaTransition, I look at how #Assad’s schools sustained rule through didactics. From “National Education” to history, schools trained obedience, conspiracy thinking, and enemy-centred frames. What changed—and what endures?
https://t.co/FT6S7yrP7T

[Qalaat Al Mudiq @QalaatAlMudiq]

#Syria: people in E. #Ghouta are celebrating tonight the arrest of one of the main Regime officers involved in the sarin attack in 2013.

Photos from Zamalka.

[Charles Lister @Charles_Lister]

NEW -- #Syria's MOI has captured one of the architects of the August 2013 Sarin gas nerve agent attack on Eastern Ghouta: Major General Adnan Halawa.

The latest in a series of high-profile arrests related to the #Assad regime's most infamous crimes.