Bashar al-Assad’s much-trailed presidential address to Syria last week was supposed to be about reform. Instead, he repeatedly conflated the protesters who have convulsed the nation with shadowy conspirators plotting to sow sectarian strife. It was a classic of the Arab strongman genre.
As waves of revolt rip through the Arab autocracies, every ruler under threat has reached for ever more preposterous explanations. Incredulous before real people demanding real change, the Arab autocrat either sees or claims to see – it is not always clear which – a disembodied conspiracy. This pathology is not quite as odd as it seems.
For despots who have come to power through military coups and wars, and bribed, plotted and killed to stay there, how could politics not be a conspiracy theory when its leading practitioners compulsively conspire?
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