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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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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

MENASource

Dec 8, 2014

Is Assad a Stabilizing Factor?

By Frederic C. Hof

As discussion intensifies over the possibility of the United States and Turkey establishing a protected zone in northern Syria, apologists for the Assad regime deploy the usual array of arguments: beware the slippery slope to invasion and occupation; do nothing until the Syrian opposition overcomes its dysfunction and presents an attractive alternative to the regime; […]

Syria

In the News

Dec 4, 2014

Hof on De Mistura’s Freeze Proposal

By Frederic C. Hof

Philadelphia Inquirer quotes Rafik Hariri Center Senior Fellow Frederic Hof on the freeze proposal plan outlined by special United Nations representative on the Syria crisis Steffan de Mistura: 

Syria

In the News

Dec 4, 2014

Itani on Turkey’s Stance on ISIS

By Faysal Itani

Middle East Monitor quotes Rafik Hariri Center Resident Fellow Faysal Itani on strained US-Turkish relations regarding the ongoing crisis in Syria:

Syria Turkey

Article

Dec 4, 2014

Obama needs to act on Syria

By Nicholas Burns

OF ALL the international crises facing President Obama in his final two years in office, how to cope with a burning Iraq and disintegrating Syria may be the most daunting. Syria, especially, is facing the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world today.

Iraq Syria

In the News

Dec 3, 2014

Itani on Arrest of ISIS Leader’s Wife

By Faysal Itani

The Daily Star quotes Rafik Hariri Center Resident Fellow Faysal Itani on the implications of the arrest of ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s wife:

Syria

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