Return to Damascus: How to build the new Syria?

For exiled Syrians, it is their wall moment of Berlin – the doors of a homeland that they thought of never seeing to open suddenly. The exhilarating days following December 8 and the apparently motionless regime of Assad brought an unexpected Christmas gift: a return to Damascus. But while the initial euphoria fades, clear Syrians are better than declaring: “And they have all lived happy forever”. The lessons of the Arab Spring are looming and the challenges to come is intimidating. How to sail in a landscape in the form of strongly armed factions – sometimes allies, sometimes rivals? What to do with thousands of civil servants and state security employees has remained unpaid since the fall of Assad? And as the international community moves to raise sanctions, the biggest question remains: how to channel money and efforts to rebuild Syria which is not only relaunched, but redesigned.