The United Nation’s Secretary General has called Syria hell on earth. How did it get this bad? What are the geopolitics? What about the rest of the Middle East? WE spend the hour answering these questions. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Laurie A. Brand is Professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California. She was the past president of Middle East Studies Association of North America. Her publications include Palestinians in the Arab World: Institution Building and the Search for State, Women, the State and Political Liberalization, Citizens Abroad: States and Migration in the Middle East and North Africa and Official Stories: Politics and National Narratives in Egypt and Algeria.

* Fred H. Lawson is a Professor of Government at Mills College and Visiting Professor National Security Affairs at the Naval PostGraduate School in Monterey. His publications include Bahrain: The Modernization of Autocracy , Constructing International Relations in the Arab World, Why Syria Goes to War: Thirty Years of Confrontation, and Global Security Watch Syria.

* Hamoud Salhi is Professor of Political Science and Middle East, and Associate Dean of the College of Social and Natural Sciences at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

* William Harris is a Professor of Politics at Otago University and an award winning author. His books include Lebanon: A History 600-2011, The Levant: A Fractured Mosaic, and his latest Quicksilver War: Syria, Iraq and the Spiral of Conflict.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.