Bashar Al Assad

Bashar al-Assad is the current President of Syria; he is in the office since 2000. The second son of former President Hafez al-Assad, he has continued the legacy of his father's brutal rule of Syria. Never the first choice to succeed his father, he was studying ophthalmology in London when his older brother and heir apparent, Bassel, was killed in a car accident. Despite his lack of military and political experience, he was immediately called back to Syria, where he was groomed to take his brother’s place. He was enrolled in the military academy and intensively trained to succeed his father. He came into power in 2000 after the death of his father. Although his early initiatives contributed to a brief period of relative openness, his regime changed course within months, using threats and arrests to extinguish pro-reform activism. In recent years his government faced a major uprising in Syria that evolved into a civil war, and despite international protests, he has continued to demonstrate tremendous disregard for human life in his efforts to hold onto power. In spite of promising to be a transformational figure who would propel Syria into the 21st century, he failed, and has instead followed in the footsteps of his father.