“Whilst, certainly, local and international press have had much more freedom to operate in Syria since Assad’s fall, there have nevertheless been reported attacks on researchers and journalists. “Protests demanding democratic and socio-economic rights have been on the rise in recent months.” “The country’s growing socio-economic challenges have been increasingly met with criticism” towards the authoritarian authorities' policies from Syrians .
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51