Syria and the Other Lessons from 1989

Abstract

It is difficult not to think of 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down and Communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe collapsed, when watching the events in North Africa in 2011. Countries such as Egypt and Tunisia still have a long way to go before they complete successful democratic transitions like those in Poland, the Czech Republic or Hungary, but those Eastern European countries can be good models, and 1989 a good touchstone.