What will the future of Syria look like? The answer may lie in the recent past of other Arab countries

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CAIRO - While hopes are high for the country, much can go wrong when the country overthrows a longtime dictator and tries to start anew. Countries in the Middle East and North Africa that have tried to transition to democracy in recent years can attest to that.

Now it is Syria's turn to try to get it right. It is difficult to draw lessons from the experiences of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Sudan since the wave of Arab Spring uprisings that began in 2011, because the dynamics of each country are different, but there are common themes.

In some cases, the "revolution" was lost when armed factions fought for power or an ambitious would-be strongman emerged. In other cases, the military refused to hand over control to civilians, or foreign countries fuelled the conflict by supporting one side or another with money and arms.

Before taking major decisions that may provoke a destabilising response, the questions to ask are: how to deal with the old police state - purge or compromise? Which do you do first, hold elections or write a constitution? And how do you fix a crippled economy riddled with corruption?

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