Alex Rowell

YouTube video by Alex Rowell Alex Rowell's Lokman Slim Prize speech, 2 February 2025

My speech upon receiving the Lokman Slim Prize in Beirut on Sunday. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrGj...

An immense honour to be awarded the Lokman Slim Prize in Beirut on Sunday.

If Lebanon's new leaders are serious about change, they must bring Lokman's killers to justice.

Thanks so much, means a great deal to hear

Just finished and I am so grateful you wrote it. What an amazing book, putting together an incredible overview of events in the Middle East during Nasser’s time and beyond. Illuminating is the word, and it really reads like a thriller. Couldn’t recommend it more

Thank you so much, hope you enjoy it!

The @economist.com kindly suggests my book as one of four "to help understand the [Middle East] region".

"An engaging tome ... provides many lessons for understanding the Middle East today."

The alcohol question is not a frivolous one - it strikes at the core of the debate about the nature of Syria's new state, argues @theactualammar.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/spotlight/th...

Impossible Revolutions and Psychedelic Mysteries: Our Best Books of 2024 In our annual tradition, New Lines' editors choose their favorite reads of the past year

Impossible revolutions and psychedelic mysteries: @newlinesmag.bsky.social editors' best books of 2024 newlinesmag.com/spotlight/im...

On the occasion of World Arabic Day, no better time to revisit the verse of the 8th-century poet, libertine and Umayyad Caliph al-Walid ibn Yazid:

Invigorating read by Karam Nachar, titled, "Syrian Democrats, This Is Our Moment!"

Rather than split into rival camps of optimists v. pessimists, he says Syrian democrats should embrace the contradictions and take an active part in shaping the new era. aljumhuriya.net/ar/2024/12/1...

Hope and Despair at Assad's 'Human Slaughterhouse' New Lines reports from Sednaya Prison, where Syrians brave horrors in a desperate search for lost loved ones

"Between hope and despair, everyone is searching for truth and justice."

Chilling photos and reporting from inside Syria's Sednaya Prison by Aubin Eymard and Cian Ward for @newlinesmag.bsky.social: newlinesmag.com/spotlight/ho...

Syria's "new" flag today, then, is actually its old flag - its first flag as an independent republic. Richly symbolic to see it once again replace the UAR flag, as it did in 1961.

Hoping parliamentary democracy once again replaces dictatorship - and that, this time, it lasts.

That democratic interlude was short-lived; in March 1963, Baathists (and Nasserists) put an end to it with a military coup that led ultimately to Hafez al-Assad's rule. Hafez restored the UAR flag in 1980, and it remained the Assad regime's flag until this month.

When the authoritarian union led by Nasser collapsed in 1961, and Syria became an independent parliamentary democracy once again, it reverted to its previous flag (below), adopted by the Syrian Republic since independence in 1946, up until the union in 1958.

A short thread on Syrian vexillology: The below was not (as many are calling it) the "Baathist" flag, nor an invention of the Assads. It was the flag of the United Arab Republic, the union between Nasser's Egypt and Syria (represented by the two green stars) from 1958-61.

Great essay on Naguib Mahfouz, “Children of the Alley” and “how a largely secular authoritarian regime was able to exploit a religious controversy to stifle the voice of a highly influential writer who was expressing his discontent with the political situation of Egypt under Nasser’s rule.”

What the Stabbing of a Nobel Prize-Winning Novelist Tells Us About Power in Egypt While the attempted assassination of Naguib Mahfouz 30 years ago is usually seen as a story of Islamist extremism, the original controversy surrounding his work was rooted more in politics than religi...

While the stabbing of Naguib Mahfouz is often seen as nothing more than a story of Islamist extremism, the original controversy around his work was also an attempt by Nasser to deflect political criticism, writes @cosenote.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social: newlinesmag.com/essays/what-...

هل من كسر للبنية الدموية في سوريا؟ | ياسين الحاج صالح هل تُحوِّل تطورات الأيام الأخيرة بيئة الصراع في سوريا على نحو يفتح الباب لتغيرات سياسية أوسع، تفاوضية أو غير ذلك؟ هل تكسر هذه التطورات نسقاً استقر طوال سنوات، نسق أحداث بلا تغير، أو أحداث عقيمة سياسيا...

A tone of cautious optimism from Syria's Yassin al-Haj Saleh, who is no fan of HTS or the SNA but notes several positives from recent days: release of prisoners from Assad's dungeons, return of displaced civilians and relative discipline of fighters, so far. www.alquds.co.uk/%d9%87%d9%84...

15 Books from 2024 My Recommendations of Fiction and Nonfiction

"An absolute treasure ... as gripping as it is illuminating."

Humbled to see "We Are Your Soldiers" on @ginoraidy.bsky.social's list of recommended books from 2024.

Follow Gino here & on Instagram for sharp and extremely entertaining Middle East commentary. ginoraidy.substack.com/p/15-books-f...

The Backstory Behind the Fall of Aleppo New Lines reports exclusively on the details leading up to the city's stunning capture

"Kyiv was meant to fall in three days, not Aleppo."

A tour de force by @hhassan.bsky.social and @michaeldweiss.bsky.social on the stunning takeover of Syria's second city, how it happened, who did it, and the many headaches it creates for Assad, Putin and Iran. newlinesmag.com/reportage/th...

Hizbullah officially declares it has attacked an Israeli military position in the Kfar Shouba hills, calling it an "initial defensive response" to Israel's "repeated violations" of the ceasefire.

(Pic from al-Manar website.)

If you’re in London, come and discuss the epic year of news that was 2024 - and which is still happening, with immense change in Syria right now. Stephen Sackur has interviewed so many key global players over the years - come and hear him review the year @newlinesmag.bsky.social reserve your spot👇

The date of the inscription, 26 September 1963, is the first anniversary of the Free Officers' coup in Yemen.

Some quick thoughts on the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal:

Many thanks!

This by @alexjrowell.bsky.social is highly recommended, a deep dive into Nasser’s malign impact on the de-colonising states of the Middle East & how the brutal dysfunction lingers: Libya, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan all covered - indispensable in understanding the ME conflict

"Imagine getting to the end of one sentence like that and having to read another just as bad. And then another ... for more than five hundred pages."

At least @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social gets paid to suffer Jordan Peterson's prose. Why anyone else would do it is an enduring mystery.

Hezbollah’s Bureaucrat-in-Chief The group’s new leader Naim Qassem is underwhelming at best and shows how far it has fallen

“Ever since Israel killed Hezbollah’s spiritual father and military guru in an airstrike on Sept. 27, the group has been on the back foot.”

newlinesmag.com/argument/hez...

Excited to announce that we’ve won an Eppy award — under the category of Best Magazine Website.

Will Climate Concerns Push Scotland To Change Its Famous Whisky Taste? The Edinburgh government is mulling a ban on the sale of peat, a vital carbon store that also puts the signature smoke in Scotch

Will Climate Concerns Push Scotland To Change Its Famous Whisky Taste?

The Edinburgh government is mulling a ban on the sale of peat, a vital carbon store that also puts the signature smoke in Scotch

By @alexjrowell.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social

newlinesmag.com/reportage/wi...