When Bashar al-Assad took over as president in 2000, he ushered in a brief period of openness that came to be called the Damascus Spring.
The Prague Spring of 1968 was a brief flowering of openness behind the Iron Curtain; what followed was a trauma hidden inside the city.
During the brief period of openness in late May and early June, parents marched with photos of their children and gathered at the wreckage of schools to hold memorial services.
Within a day, however, the Chinese central government, displaying its usual efficiency, began suppressing results, thereby ending a brief moment of openness in China.
During a brief flowering of political openness, he gained a large following in China and abroad for his outspoken criticism of the Communist system.
After a brief period of relative openness (compared to what followed) in the 1920s, literature became a tool of state propaganda.
Those early gestures contributed to a brief period of relative openness, dubbed the "Damascus Spring" by some observers, in which public political discussion forums emerged and calls for political reform were tolerated.
Syrian liberals enjoyed a brief "Damascus Spring" of greater openness after his accession, but it soon faded.
Although they had patches of tedium, these events also offered moments, sometimes quite brief, of exhilarating vulnerability and openness, the sense of something coming together before your very eyes.
So in our traditional spirit of openness, with only the briefest mention of the traditional caveats, let's take a look at the top 10 stories of 2015 on the Books site.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, told reporters at a daily news briefing, "We've also expressed an openness to having direct discussions with Iran".
