Sarkozy needs a crash course in diplomacy. He could far worse than enrol in Damascus, writes Emad Fawzi El-Shueibi* With an American president on one side, huffing and puffing impatiently, and a French president on the other playing at being Bush, swinging between provocative diatribes and flurries of behind-the-scenes diplomacy to repair the damage done, one might think that Damascus's head would be spinning. But no: instead it is bowed over the board and focussed on its game, heedless to the media hullabaloo that has no place in serious politics anyway. Although it is hard to trace how the Bush virus spread from the White House to the Palais de l'Elysee the symptomatic ranting-and-raving is having the same impact on French foreign policy as it did on America's. Yet rather than allowing itself to relax and let down its guard Damascus has become even more cautious. It knows that every hour that it gains now will work to its advantage for years to come. The rules for how the world treats Damascus tomorrow are being drawn up today, on the ground, shaped by three long years of buffeting winds and tempestuous storms from which Damascus appears to have emerged relatively unscathed. The Syrians are masters at waiting. Time is for contemplating the bigger picture and the prize, in the end, is their future. They are fully aware of Syria's regional weight. It is pointless to poke and prod at details; they are important, of course, but should be ruminated over, chewed upon. What matters to Syrians, though, are the grander ideas and notions -- Syria, the state of the Arab world and, above all, national sovereignty. The latter is a no trespass zone. Syrians do not respond to pressure. They've always been that way. It's one of their best guarded secrets. Right now they know the pressure has already passed its apex and is on a downward slope. The Americans and French, therefore, are wasting time by continuing to hem and haw over cooperating with Damascus. Nor do they have anything to gain in the interim by turning up the media heat. Damascus knows that recourse to this avenue means no more serious avenues are available. It also knows that to cave into pressure is to court a spiralling of such pressure. Damascus had no choice but to reveal some aspects of its dealings with France. While its foreign minister released no statement to the Syrian press with regard to Sarkozy's own provocative statements -- the intention, perhaps was to allow the French an opportunity to retract -- the Syrian press did not hesitate for a moment to lash out against such heavy doses of Bushism. This was Damascus's way of signalling that it has passed its ordeal and is now prepared to meet media fire with media steel. The message conveyed was that if France cannot make up its mind whether to conduct foreign policy through its Foreign Ministry or through the office of the president that is France's problem, but Syria will not tolerate attempts to play to the gallery or tactics at odds with the conventions of diplomacy. The Syrian message to the French was intended, too, to remind the Americans to lay off. One cannot help but wonder at how low some heads of state have sunk in the age of globalisation. They would never have allowed their prestige to be so cheapened on the media stage before the last war against Iraq. Perhaps this is because recourse to brute force puts paid to the prestige of those who wield it, all the more so when they have no strategy for shifting back to diplomacy and keeping even the veneer of dignity from cracking further. Perhaps, too, it is because in times of open warfare politicians are stripped of their mystique. When their teeth are bared and politics reduced to raw action the three-fold edifice -- the legend that inspires veneration, the creed that attracts popularity and the rites and rituals that preserve the façade of nobility -- upon which that mystique is founded inevitably crumbles. Now that the era of outright warfare appears to be waning, international statesmen must relearn how to play by the rules of the diplomatic game. They should respect others' sovereignty, remain level-headed and ensure here is some consistency between words and deeds. They must also bear in mind that Syria refuses to be anyone's pawn. That the Syrians did not respond in kind to attempts to ruffle their cool is not just because they find such behaviour distasteful, it actually places them in a stronger position, on the morally higher ground. And while Damascus may be prepared for some give it is not prepared to sacrifice, among other things, Syria's autonomy of will, strategic interests or regional presence. * The writer is a professor of political science at Damascus University and director of the Centre for Strategic Data and Studies.
