Reforms in reverse

In setting targets for foreign investment in Syria during a speech last year, the country’s then-Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Abdullah Dardari, admitted that there was “a long way to go.” “A competitive economy is a mindset, a new way of seeing things,” he said. “This is the real challenge. But the political determination is unquestionable. There is no going back.” That, however, was before regional unrest in recent months spread to the home front and spurred a reshaping of Syria’s policy direction. The government’s almost decade-long embrace of an economy-first model unraveled as events unfolded in Tunisia and Egypt; to keep the wolf of revolt from Syria’s door, a slew of small appeasement packages and limited social reforms were implemented — sometimes in complete reversal of long-term economic strategies. This strategy initially appeared to have kept investor confidence high and popular unrest at bay but in the later