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Syria Project

Our work on Syria sheds light on the ongoing struggle of Syrians to fulfill their desire for democratic self-governance as the United States and the international community grapple with the aftermath of a devastating civil war, millions of refugees across the Middle East and Europe, and ongoing security and political challenges spilling over Syria’s borders.


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Syria Strategy Project

The Atlantic Council, Middle East Institute, and European Institute of Peace collaborate with subject matter experts and policymakers in the US, Europe, and the Middle East to develop a holistic strategy to sustainably forge a pathway to resolving Syria’s crisis.

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Middle East Programs

Working with our allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

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Content

In the News

Jan 1, 2015

al-Kattan in Syria Studies: Mapping the Ailing (but Resilient) Syrian Banking Sector

By Rashad al-Kattan

Read the full article here.

Syria

In the News

Dec 26, 2014

Slavin on Russia, Cuba, Syria

By Barbara Slavin

South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Barbara Slavin joins Voice of America’s Issues in the News to discuss latest developments in Russia, Syria, Iraq, and Cuba: 

Russia Syria

MENASource

Dec 24, 2014

ISIS’s Governance Crisis (Part II): Social Services

By Mona Alami

In its fourth issue of its English-language newsletter Dabig, the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) boasted that a “state cannot be established” unless it looked after both the “worldly and the religious needs” of Muslims. With that specific goal in mind, ISIS has entrenched itself in the daily life of residents of the region straddling […]

Iraq Syria

In the News

Dec 22, 2014

Hof on the “Analyst in Chief”

By Frederic C. Hof

Reuters quotes Rafik Hariri Center Senior Fellow Frederic Hof on US policy toward Syria: 

Syria

In the News

Dec 22, 2014

Slavin: United States to Accept Syrian Refugees for Resettlement

By Barbara Slavin

South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Barbara Slavin writes for Al-Monitor on the Syrian refugee situation:

Syria

MENASource

Dec 19, 2014

2015: The Year of the Syrian People

By Frederic C. Hof

2014, like the three years preceding it, was a year of horror, terror, and hardship for millions of Syrians, the overwhelming majority of whom—Arab and Kurdish, Sunni, Alawite, Christian, Druze, Ismaili, and Shia—were innocent victims of heartless, criminal violence: most, though not all, orchestrated by Bashar al-Assad and his clan-based regime.

Syria

MENASource

Dec 19, 2014

ISIS’s Governance Crisis (Part I): Economic Governance

By Mona Alami

Last summer, the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIl or ISIS) consolidated its control over large swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory. The terrorist nebula has seen a rapid transformation, consolidating its grip through recruitment, fear, and the imposition of social policy in an attempt at governance.

Iraq Syria

MENASource

Dec 18, 2014

Syria: Hope for De-Escalation

By Frederic C. Hof

Hope springs eternal in the Obama administration that a Deus ex machina in the form of a diplomatic process producing military de-escalation and Syrian political transition will enter unbidden from stage left and relieve the West of any obligation to counter the Assad regime’s systematic program of mass murder.  President Barack Obama, quite properly, has […]

Syria

MENASource

Dec 15, 2014

Syria: The Diplomatic Placebo

By Frederic C. Hof

Ambassador Brett McGurk, the deputy to anti-Islamic State (anti-ISIS or -ISIL) coalition coordinator General John Allen, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on December 10, “We do not see a situation in which the [nationalist] rebels are able to remove Assad from power … It will have to be a diplomatic process.”

Syria

In the News

Dec 8, 2014

Hof on Syria: “There’s No Fairy Dust”

By Frederic C. Hof

The New Yorker quotes Rafik Hariri Center Senior Fellow Frederic Hof on the ongoing civil war in Syria:

Syria

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