SYRIA & LEBANON

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The conflict that has assailed Syria since 2011 is generally explained in terms of Islamic extremism, government atrocity and geo-strategic jostling between foreign powers.

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Media coverage has over-looked the influence of Bashar Al Assad’s adoption of neo-liberal policies. These resulted in a widening of the gap between rich and poor and fomented civil unrest.

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Rebels have been driven out of Aleppo but siege and bombing have laid waste to this ancient city. Its bullet-marked medieval citadel now affords views of devastation.

How will Aleppo be re-built? It stands as a test for the Syrian government on how to re-develop and run cities that have been retaken. The ground seems set for intractable division. The question for post-war planning is how to restore balance.

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Answers will not be easy to come by but nearby Beirut serves as something of a reverse role-model.

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The Lebanese capital's post-war development resulted in a reduction in the public realm by way of a neo-liberal, consumption-based blueprint. Indicative of the scene in a globalised world, Beirut’s downtown is subject to large real-estate development that salivates over the prospect of multinationals, banks, luxury malls, hotels and restaurants sucking in affluent ‘creatives’ – and the affluent only. Exclusionary governance rules.

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Redevelopment comprised of downtown and urban park regeneration - linked by a pedestrian and bicycle "Soft Connection - seems laudable in its aim to neutralise identity-based division and war trauma by super-imposing projects over the civil war's demarcation line. Known as the "Green Line", it was Beirut's most symbolically-imbued space.

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Any inclusive historical symbolism has been supplanted by status as a sterile financial hub. To boot, the private real estate interest behind reconstruction convinced government to allow it to supervise and manage the public realm.

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Will post-war Aleppo be stamped with this same blueprint?