Featured reading

Can Assad Help With ISIS?

New Atlanticist
Dec 8, 2024

Experts react: Rebels have toppled the Assad regime. What’s next for Syria, the Middle East, and the world?

By
Atlantic Council experts

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been ousted as opposition forces quickly took the Syrian capital. Atlantic Council experts share their insights on the developments.

Conflict
Corruption

Can Assad Help With ISIS?

Fast Thinking
Dec 8, 2024

Assad has fallen. Now what?

By
Atlantic Council

The power shift in Syria will reverberate across the Middle East and the world. Our experts explain what’s next.

Conflict
Iran

Can Assad Help With ISIS?

New Atlanticist
Dec 9, 2024

Dispatch from Doha: Assad’s fall, Iran’s weakness, and the impact of unintended consequences

By
Jonathan Panikoff

In just six months, Iran has slid from a position of strength to perhaps the weakest it has been since 1979.

Conflict
Iran

Can Assad Help With ISIS?

MENASource
Dec 10, 2024

Where Syria goes next after the fall of Assad

By
Frederic C. Hof

With the Assad family agone, Syria, at long last, has a chance to achieve the kind of political transition envisioned by the 2012 Geneva Final Communique and UNSCR 2254.

Conflict
Middle East

Can Assad Help With ISIS?

New Atlanticist
Dec 10, 2024

A blueprint for bringing about a new Syria

By
Kirsten Fontenrose

For a reconstruction strategy in Syria to be effective, all parties must adopt a unified approach that is clear-eyed about the country’s new leaders.

Crisis Management
International Organizations

Explore our Syria work

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.


Group of world leaders sitting around table set up.

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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Featured experts

Leadership

Fellow


Qutaiba Idlbi


Resident Senior Fellow, Syria

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Economic Sanctions
Entrepreneurship

Fellows

Fellow


Michel Duclos


Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Conflict
Crisis Management

Fellow


Arwa Damon


Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic
Civil Society

Fellow


Ömer Özkizilcik


Nonresident Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic
English

Fellow


Sinan Hatahet


Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic
Economic Sanctions

Former fellow


Hind Kabawat


Former Nonresident Senior Fellow, Syria Project

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic
Civil Society

Fellow


Diana Rayes 


Nonresident Fellow, Syria Project

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic
Civil Society

Past events

Online Event
Thu, December 19, 2024 • 12:30 pm ET

Putin loses in Syria. Is Russia in retreat?

Conflict
Europe & Eurasia
Middle East
Russia

Online Event
Tue, May 21, 2024 • 10:30 am ET

Exploring investment opportunities in northwest Syria

Conflict
Economic Sanctions
Economy & Business
Financial Regulation


Event Recap

Mar 29, 2024

Launching the Syria Strategy Project

By
JP Reppeto and Charles Johnson

On March 18, 2024, the Atlantic Council’s Syria Project, the Middle East Institute’s Syria Program, the European Institute of Peace, and Madaniya Civil Society Network launched the Syria Strategy, an intensive process of engagement with subject matter experts and policymakers in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East to develop a holistic strategy to […]

Civil Society
Conflict

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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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Sign up for the MENASource newsletter, highlighting pieces that follow democratic transitions and economic changes throughout the region.

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Content

MENASource

Aug 22, 2014

Can Assad Help With ISIS?

By Frederic C. Hof

With Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel telling a Pentagon press conference that “all options are on the table” regarding air strikes in Syria on the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), and with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey saying that ISIS cannot be defeated militarily without addressing its presence in Syria, […]

Syria

MENASource

Aug 22, 2014

Shut Up ISIS

By Nancy Messieh

Hashtag activism rarely serves a purpose. It is easy to sit in the comfort of a quiet home, thousands of miles away from any real conflict, and click a link, or share a thought, and be left with the sensation that something has been accomplished.

North Africa Syria

Article

Aug 21, 2014

Column: If Maliki Can Go, Why Not Assad?

By Barbara Slavin

The impressive results of U.S. air strikes in Iraq this month are prompting new calls from some quarters for similar U.S. intervention in Syria. Abdulrahman Dadam, president of the Free Aleppo Governorate Council, wrote an impassioned plea for a U.S./NATO no fly zone to protect his historic city from both the Islamic State (IS) and […]

Iraq Middle East

In the News

Aug 21, 2014

Saab on Anniversary of Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack

By Bilal Y. Saab

The Associated Press quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Resident Senior Fellow for Middle East Security Bilal Y. Saab on the one year anniversary of the chemical attack in Syria that left hundreds of civilians dead: 

Syria

New Atlanticist

Aug 20, 2014

ISIS Execution: A Brutal “Message to America”

By New Atlanticist

The Islamist militant group ISIS executed US journalist James Foley as a political message aimed at changing US policy, with its recent air attacks on the group’s forces, says Atlantic Council resident fellow Faysal Itani. It also is meant to portray ISIS as a newly powerful player in the Middle East and thus to win […]

Iraq Syria

MENASource

Aug 20, 2014

Syria: Time for Washington to Decide

By Frederic C. Hof

Of the many difficult questions Washington faces about the crisis in Syria, three are basic: what is the strategy of the United States for achieving President Obama’s objective of a negotiated political transition from rule by crime family to decent, pluralistic governance?

Syria

MENASource

Aug 18, 2014

A Real Syria Policy Starts with Saving Aleppo

By Abdulrahman Dadam

As President Barack Obama considers whether to provide forceful assistance to the Syrian democratic resistance forces, one of the last pillars of hope for Syria is dangerously close to falling. My city, Aleppo, just thirty-five miles from Turkey, is the largest city in Syria and it is currently under threat from both the Islamic State […]

Syria

MENASource

Aug 15, 2014

Syria: Risks Of Intervention

By Frederic C. Hof

Recently Ross Douthat of The New York Times posted a lengthy piece on the Times‘ blog entitled “Syria and the Risks of Intervention.” It is perhaps the best piece of argumentation out there against the proposition (advanced here and elsewhere) that timely military support for armed Syrian nationalists “would have prevented more radical groups from […]

Syria

In the News

Aug 15, 2014

Hof on Syrian Opposition

By Frederic C. Hof

Hariri Center Senior Fellow Frederic C. Hof speaks with NPR about US policy in Syria and the fading opposition movement: 

Syria

In the News

Aug 15, 2014

Itani on Importance of Aleppo to Syrian Regime and Opposition

By Faysal Itani

Syria Deeply quotes Rafik Hariri Center Resident Fellow Faysal Itani on the strategic importance of the Syrian city of Aleppo to both the government and opposition forces:

Syria
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Experts

Fellow

Amany Qaddour 

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic Civil Society

Fellow

Diana Rayes 

Nonresident Fellow, Syria Project

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic Civil Society

Fellow

Lukas Andriukaitis

Nonresident Fellow

Digital Forensic Research Lab

Disinformation Eastern Europe

Staff

Elise Baker

Senior Staff Lawyer, Strategic Litigation Project

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Civil Society Extremism

Fellow

Nicholas Blanford

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic Conflict

Fellow

Alia Brahimi

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic Civil Society
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