Bassel, the heir apparent to the Syrian state under Hafez’s Ba’athist regime, was expected to pick up the mantle once his aging father passed. However after a car crash in ‘94 he was fatally injured, and his less well known son Bashar (who was an eye doctor at the time) had to fill in. Bassel was groomed to be heir from the start, and was highly popular among the people, atleast compared with his brother. How would this change the trajectory of Syria, internally and externally? How would Bassel have reacted to the Arab Spring?