the "Damascus Papers" is a project of the Damascus Center for Research and Studies (MADAD). Papers are presented by leading scholars, intellectuals and academicians on a problem, a pressing issue, or a theorem connected to the modern nation-state in Syria, Syrian society, culture, and history. The paper is discussed by a circle of peers then published alongside their notes on the paper. All Damascus Papers are first published in Arabic. The Syrian Private University, in conjuction with DCRS will start a translation project to publish them in English