Featured reading

To Solve Syria, First Get Assad to Accept UN Aid Workers

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

To Solve Syria, First Get Assad to Accept UN Aid Workers

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

To Solve Syria, First Get Assad to Accept UN Aid Workers

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

To Solve Syria, First Get Assad to Accept UN Aid Workers

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

To Solve Syria, First Get Assad to Accept UN Aid Workers

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

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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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Featured experts

Leadership

Former fellow


Qutaiba Idlbi


Former 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

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Mon, March 18, 2024 • 1:00 pm ET

The Syria Strategy Project: A public launch

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Online Event
Mon, February 12, 2024 • 12:00 pm ET

One year on: Assessing the February 6th earthquake response in Syria

Civil Society
Economy & Business
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International Organizations

Online Event
Fri, May 31, 2024 • 9:30 am ET

Serving communities with disability in conflict contexts

Civil Society
Conflict
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Content

New Atlanticist

Jan 16, 2014

To Solve Syria, First Get Assad to Accept UN Aid Workers

By James Rupert

The US and its allies must address their Syria policies to the humanitarian catastrophe of millions of Syrians uprooted or brutalized by the civil war there – and must do it for reasons of realpolitik as well as humanitarianism, according to Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Frederic Hof, a former State Department advisor on Syria. As […]

Syria

In the News

Jan 15, 2014

Hof Talks Syria Donor Conference

By Frederic C. Hof

Hariri Center for the Middle East Senior Fellow Frederic C. Hof joins NPR’s Morning Edition to discuss the donors conference in Kuwait aimed at raising humanitarian aid for Syria:

Syria

MENASource

Jan 13, 2014

Syrian Peace Talks: What is Achievable Near Term?

By Frederic C. Hof

We came together this morning, and we are planning for a Geneva II conference next week for a simple reason: because there is no military solution to the violence that has displaced millions and taken more than 130,000 lives. There is no other alternative to ending this violence and saving the state of Syria than […]

Syria
Germany is Contributing to the Destruction of Syria's Chemical Weapons

NATOSource

Jan 10, 2014

Germany’s Contribution to the OPCW-UN Mission in Syria

By German Foreign Ministry

In response to a request from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the German Government has decided that Germany will make a substantial contribution towards the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons.

Germany Syria

MENASource

Jan 10, 2014

Syria Ban Ki-moon’s Geneva Conference Invitation

By Frederic C. Hof

On January 6 United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dispatched written invitations to a “Geneva Conference on Syria” in Switzerland to be convened under his chairmanship. The conference would open with a plenary “high-level format” in Montreux on January 22, where “international participants will be present to demonstrate their meaningful support for constructive negotiations between the […]

Syria

In the News

Jan 9, 2014

Hof Quoted on Nonlethal Aid to Syrian Rebels

By Frederic C. Hof

The New York Times quotes Frederic C. Hof, senior fellow for the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, on the decision to resume nonlethal aid to Syrian rebel groups:

Syria
Syria's 1st batch of chemical weapons materials now onboard the Ark Futura

NATOSource

Jan 8, 2014

First Chemical Weapons Removed From Syria to Danish Ship

By BBC and AP

From BBC:  The first consignment of Syrian chemical weapons materials has left the country on a Danish ship.

China Northern Europe

MENASource

Jan 7, 2014

The Culture of Rebellion in Syria

By Faysal Itani

The latest rebel infighting in Syria illustrates how profoundly the uprising has changed Syrian political culture. In the last week, rebel groups across a broad ideological spectrum mounted coordinated attacks on transnational jihadist militants in the country’s central and northern provinces.

Syria

In the News

Jan 5, 2014

Hof Quoted on Assad’s Endurance

By Frederic C. Hof

Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East Senior Fellow Frederic C. Hof is quoted in the Christian Science Monitor on how the Assad regime has positioned itself to outlast rebel factions as peace talks in Geneva near:

Syria

In the News

Jan 3, 2014

Hof Quoted on Syria Conflict

By Frederic C. Hof

Rafik Hariri Center Senior Fellow Frederic C. Hof is quoted in a Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial on Syria’s rising death toll:

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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