In Syria the image of President Hafiz al-Asad is everywhere. In newspapers on television and during orchestrated spectacles Asad is praised as the father the gallant knight even the countrys premier pharmacist. Yet most Syrians including those who create the official rhetoric do not believe its claims. Why would a regime spend scarce resources on a cult whose content is patently spurious? Wedeen concludes that Asads cult acts as a disciplinary device generating a politics of public dissimulation in which citizens act as if they revered their leader. By inundating daily life with tired symbolism the regime exercises a subtle yet effective form of power. The cult works to enforce obedience induce complicity isolate Syrians from one another and set guidelines for public speech and behavior. Wedeens ethnographic research demonstrates how Syrians recognize the disciplinary aspects of the cult and seek to undermine them. Provocative and original Ambiguities of Domination is a significant contribution to comparative politics political theory and cultural studies.