Samir Aita
General Manager, A Concept mafhoum
General Manager & Editor in Chief
Le Monde diplomatique editions arabes

Graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees, Institut National des Sciences et Techniques Nucleaires, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Centre de Perfectionnement aux Affaires.

He worked at the Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique 1978-1986, Engineering Systems International 1986-1993, Contracting & Engineering Enterprises 1993-1999, CEO of Framasoft International 1996-1997. In 1999, he founded “A Concept s.a.r.l” a consulting in Economy, Finance and ICT, that he still manages (www.mafhoum.com), being between 2000 and 2002 advisor to the Chairman of Societe Generale Bank in Lebanon. He founded in 2005 “Le Monde diplomatique editions arabes” which presently distributes more than a million copies in the Arab countries.

He consulted (2003-2006) for various projects in Syria: Country ICT strategy, Central Bank and banking sector diagnosis and reforms, Syria Country Profile.

Reference Publications on Syria
“Syria: a monopoly on democracy”, Le Monde diplomatique, July 2005 http://mondediplo.com/2005/07/11syria

“The Road ahead for Syria”, (coordinator) ERF and FEMISE Syria country profile report. http://www.erf.org.eg/cms.php?id=publication_details&publication_id=837

Joshua Landis
Director of the Center for Peace Studies
University of Oklahoma

Dr. Landis is Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies in the School of international and Area Studies. He writes “SyriaComment.com,” a daily newsletter on Syrian politics that is widely read by officials in Washington, Europe and Syria.

His book, Democracy in Syria, will appear in 2008, and he is author of numerous articles on subjects from The Syrian Opposition, Islamic Education in Syria, the 1948 War in Palestine, and US-Syrian relations. He is a frequent analyst on TV and radio, having recently appeared on the PBS News Hour, the Charlie Rose Show, Syrian National TV, al-Jazeera, NPR, and the BBC.
 
He was educated at Swarthmore (BA), Harvard (MA), and Princeton (PhD). He has lived over 14 years in the Middle East, having been brought up in Beirut in the 1960s, he returned in the 1980s to teach in Beirut and study in universities in Damascus, Cairo, and Istanbul. Most recently, he spent 2005 in Syria as a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow and lived several months in Damascus in 2007. He is married to a Syrian, Manar Kachour Landis, who was brought up in Latakia. They have a son named, Kendall Shaaban Landis.