Featured reading

The President’s Decision-Making on Syria

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

The President’s Decision-Making on Syria

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

The President’s Decision-Making on Syria

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

The President’s Decision-Making on Syria

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

The President’s Decision-Making on Syria

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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Content

MENASource

Feb 12, 2013

The President’s Decision-Making on Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

Washington was again caught by surprise last week in the wake of reports that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and ex-CIA Director David Petraeus had advised President Barack Obama last July to reverse policy and arm vetted Syrian rebels. The latest shoe dropped when Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint […]

Syria United States and Canada

MENASource

Jan 29, 2013

Syria: Transitional Government and US Choices

By Frederic C. Hof

The prospect of the Syrian opposition forming a provisional or transitional government brings to the fore fundamental decisions for the United States: decisions that would have to be taken or openly reaffirmed before Syrian Opposition Coalition President Moaz al-Khatib visits Washington sometime in February. Washington’s enthusiasm for the emergence of a government offering an alternative […]

Syria United States and Canada

MENASource

Jan 23, 2013

Syria: Strategy for What?

By Frederic C. Hof

There has been no shortage of editorializing commentary laying out recommended strategies for the Obama administration to deal with the Syrian crisis since it began nearly two years ago. Although often well-written and soundly reasoned, many of these essays skirt the most pertinent definition of the word “strategy” offered by Webster’s: “the art of devising […]

Syria

MENASource

Jan 14, 2013

Syria: Is It Too Late?

By Frederic C. Hof

Syria is dying. Bashar al-Assad has made it clear that the price of his removal is the death of the nation. A growing extremist minority in the armed opposition has made it clear that a Syria of citizenship and civil society is, in its view, an abomination to be killed. And those in the middle […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jan 9, 2013

In Syria, War is the New Normal

By Rajan Menon

After 22 months of civil war, in which an estimated 60,000 people have died, Syrian President Bashar Assad gave a defiant speech Sunday that ruled out negotiations with rebel fighters and made clear that he intends to remain in power as long as possible. Assad’s words came as no great surprise. Seasoned diplomats, including former […]

National Security Security & Defense

MENASource

Jan 8, 2013

Forming a Syrian Opposition Government: The Time is Now

By Frederic C. Hof

The Syrian Opposition Council (SOC) formed in November 2012 faces no shortage of dire challenges as it tries to organize itself and give desperately needed political leadership to a heterogeneous hodgepodge of armed and unarmed opponents of the dying yet lethally venomous regime of Bashar al-Assad.  How to uphold the primacy of citizenship in an […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jan 8, 2013

Saving Syria from Assad

By Julian Lindley-French

Syrian President Assad left little grounds for optimism in his 6 January ‘peace’ initiative. Clearly there can now be no peace with Assad but what will it take to get rid of him and what would happen if he went?

National Security Security & Defense

MENASource

Jan 3, 2013

Syria 2013: Will The Poison Pill of Sectarianism Work?

By Frederic C. Hof

At the dawn of the New Year President Bashar al-Assad and his regime remain committed to pursuing a corrosively destructive sectarian survival strategy, one enjoying a critical assist from an increasingly radicalized and politically directionless armed opposition.  Left to their own devices—as both the West and Russia seemed inclined to leave them—the regime and its armed […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Dec 21, 2012

NATO’s Syria Red Line

By Joanna Buckley

What began in March 2011 as peaceful protests against the Syrian regime has developed into a bloody civil war with an estimated 40,000 people killed. The launch of Scud missiles this week has escalated the conflict and has been seen by some analysts as a sign that President Bashar al-Assad is becoming increasingly desperate and […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Dec 21, 2012

Syria’s Time Is Running Out

By Frederic C. Hof

In March 2011, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a fateful and catastrophic choice. In Deraa, regime thugs had pulled the fingernails off of teenagers guilty of the high crime of spray-painting anti-regime graffiti. Instead of going there to console and compensate families, he ordered the same thugs to open fire on demonstrators.

Security & Defense Syria
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Experts

Fellow

Lesley Chavkin

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Economic Statecraft Initiative GeoEconomics Center

Africa Economy & Business

Fellow

Hagar Hajjar Chemali

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Economic Statecraft Initiative GeoEconomics Center

Economic Sanctions Economy & Business

Fellow

Arwa Damon

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic Civil Society

Fellow

Michel Duclos

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Conflict Crisis Management

Fellow

Sinan Hatahet

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic Economic Sanctions

Fellow

Qutaiba Idlbi

Resident Senior Fellow, Syria

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Economic Sanctions Entrepreneurship
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