Featured reading

Chinese Military Ship Will Help Guard Destruction of Syria’s Chemical Weapons

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

Chinese Military Ship Will Help Guard Destruction of Syria’s Chemical Weapons

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

Chinese Military Ship Will Help Guard Destruction of Syria’s Chemical Weapons

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

Chinese Military Ship Will Help Guard Destruction of Syria’s Chemical Weapons

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

Chinese Military Ship Will Help Guard Destruction of Syria’s Chemical Weapons

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.


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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

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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Content

Chinese Frigate

NATOSource

Dec 20, 2013

Chinese Military Ship Will Help Guard Destruction of Syria’s Chemical Weapons

By New York Times, Reuters, & South China Morning Post

From Jane Perlez, New York Times:  The same day that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel of the United States blasted the actions of a Chinese ship in the South China Sea as “irresponsible,” China announced that it would deploy a military ship to work with an American vessel involved in the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.

China Italy

MENASource

Dec 20, 2013

Syria: Will Russia Deliver at Geneva?

By Frederic C. Hof

Moscow’s decision to block a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning human rights abuses in Syria—catastrophic abuses authored in the main by a family regime posing as a government—should cast serious doubt on any expectation of Russia facilitating a Syrian political transition at the conference scheduled for Montreux and Geneva on January 22. Moscow seems perfectly […]

Syria

MENASource

Dec 18, 2013

Syria: Stopping the Carnage

By Frederic C. Hof

The greatest humanitarian catastrophe of the twenty-first century has unfolded before our eyes in Syria and in the countries surrounding it. As a harsh winter tightens its grip, Syrians in large numbers are dying, starving, fleeing, freezing, and crying out to the world for help.

Syria

MENASource

Dec 13, 2013

Syria: Extremism as a Force for Good

By Frederic C. Hof

Karl Rove, onetime senior advisor to President George W. Bush, reportedly told an interviewer, “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” Substitute the word “speak” for “act” and one has the reality-creating corollary of the Obama administration.

Syria

MENASource

Dec 12, 2013

Saving Syria’s Children

By Frederic C. Hof

Last night on December 11, 2013 Ambassador Frederic C. Hof delivered opening remarks at the US premier of BBC’s Panorama film Saving Syria’s Children hosted by the Embassy of the United Kingdom.

Syria

MENASource

Dec 11, 2013

Syria: Geneva and the Alternative to the Assad Regime

By Frederic C. Hof

If the Geneva peace conference scheduled for January 22, 2014 features a credible proposal by the Syrian opposition for a transitional governmental alternative to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the conference itself can contribute to the end of corruptly brutal clan rule in Syria.

Syria

MENASource

Dec 11, 2013

Syria: Kerry’s Chance for a Pivot to Humanitarian Access at Geneva

By Matthew Hall

January 22, the latest in a long string of dates penciled-in for Geneva II, is six weeks from today. Hotel rooms are being booked in Montreux, Russian and Iranian ministers are meeting to plot their game plan, and the opposition Syrian National Council has agreed—under great duress and with several preconditions—to attend the peace talks.

Syria
G 20 Meeting in St. Petersburg

NATOSource

Dec 10, 2013

Chinese Hackers Spied on Europeans Before G20 Meeting: Researcher

By Reuters and New York Times

From Jim Finkle, Reuters:  Chinese hackers eavesdropped on the computers of five European foreign ministries before last September’s G20 Summit, which was dominated by the Syrian crisis, according to research by computer security firm FireEye Inc.

China Cybersecurity

MENASource

Dec 9, 2013

Syria: Talk to Assad?

By Frederic C. Hof

Commenting recently to The New York Times, Ryan Crocker (the former United States ambassador to Syria and several other places) suggested, “We need to start talking to the Assad regime again… It will have to be done very, very quietly. But bad as Assad is, he is not as bad as the jihadis who would […]

Syria

MENASource

Dec 6, 2013

Unintended Consequences in Syria

By Faysal Itani

The most significant development in the Syrian conflict is neither chemical weapons disarmament nor international posturing over the Geneva II process, but US engagement with the newly-formed Jabha al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Front—a coalition of Islamist nationalist militia. After two and a half years of hand-wringing, meandering, and denial, US strategy in Syria finally began to […]

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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