Publication

On November 12, 2011, the League of Arab States suspended the membership of one of its founding partners, the Syrian Arab Republic. This brief suggests that the Arab League’s actions against Assad may well have been inspired by a factor that is never officially acknowledged but constantly hovers in the background of Arab politics - sectarianism. The author concludes that a new era of pluralism and openness may yet emerge in the Arab world, but the old era of identity politics has not yet passed.