Featured reading

Time to Get NATO More Active on the Syrian Situation

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

Time to Get NATO More Active on the Syrian Situation

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

Time to Get NATO More Active on the Syrian Situation

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

Time to Get NATO More Active on the Syrian Situation

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

Time to Get NATO More Active on the Syrian Situation

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

Public Event
Mon, March 18, 2024 • 1:00 pm ET

The Syria Strategy Project: A public launch

Civil Society
Conflict
Freedom and Prosperity
Human Rights

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
Human Rights
International Organizations

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

Serving communities with disability in conflict contexts

Civil Society
Conflict
Crisis Management
Human Rights

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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

New Atlanticist

Sep 21, 2012

Time to Get NATO More Active on the Syrian Situation

By Robert Bracknell

The Syrian regime is struggling to contain yet another manifestation of the Arab Spring with brutality and inhumanity unparalleled since the freedom phenomenon began in Tunisia last April. The international media has documented the slaughter of thousands of rebels and protected civilians, waging war indiscriminately and through inhumane and unlawful means against internal populations whose […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Sep 17, 2012

Turkish Ambassador Calls For NATO to ‘Act Decisively’ in Syria

By James Joyner

In the most powerful call for action yet by his government, Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan declared, “The implosion of Syria is a regional conflagration that threatens international peace and security. What we expect from our partners is a serious engagement and meaningful contribution to the resolution of this conflict.”

NATO Security & Defense

Event Recap

Sep 14, 2012

Fourth Annual Members’ Conference – Syria: Is International Intervention Inevitable?

By Jason Harmala

Summary of the master class “Syria: Is International Intervention Inevitable?” at the 2012 Annual Members’ Conference. Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, RNA, former Head of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria Moderated by Dr. Michele Dunne, Director, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, Atlantic Council

Syria

New Atlanticist

Sep 10, 2012

Preventing Atrocity Crimes in Syria: The Responsibility to Protect

By Paul R. Williams J. Trevor Ulbrick and Jonathan P. Worboys

Has the Syria crisis finally reached the tipping point for intervention? In Aleppo, Human Rights Watch reported that Syrian aircraft have been deliberately bombing breadlines.

International Organizations Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Aug 29, 2012

Democracy Is Discipline and Self-Restraint

By Odeh Aburdene

The Arab uprisings over the last twenty months have shown that power flows from the bottom up, and people eventually will defy unjust tyranny and oppression. The Arab uprisings are a testament to the power of the powerless.

Libya North Africa

New Atlanticist

Aug 27, 2012

The Syria Bluff

By Julian Lindley-French

It is clearly intelligence-led. President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron have said that any recourse to chemical weapons by Damascus would be “completely unacceptable” and would lead the US and UK to “revisit their approach” to the crisis. According to Obama even moving the weapons would cross an American “red line” with “enormous consequences”. The […]

Syria United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Aug 2, 2012

Both Regime and Opposition in Syria Are Mysteries

By Sarwar Kashmeri

Professor Heidi Lane of the Naval War College suggests that prudence not intervention is the best course of action in Syria in a conversation with Sarwar Kashmeri,  senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. (8 minute audio interview)

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jul 31, 2012

Syria’s Olympian Tragedy and the New Middle East

By Julian Lindley-French

The struggle for Syria is forging a new Middle East. Summer Olympics are often used by desperate, repressive, time-expired regimes to act repressively. The Russians invaded Georgia in the midst of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Now, the Assad regime is attacking Syria’s largest city Aleppo. Some estimates suggest up to 200,000 people have already been […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jul 20, 2012

Before taking on Syria, U.S. should heed lesson of the past

By Kiron K. Skinner

On June 6, 1982, Israel, seeking to relieve pressure on its northern borders by dismantling the Palestine Liberation Organization’s base of operation, invaded Lebanon, a country beset by civil war and Syrian occupation. Soon thereafter, France, Italy and the United States formed a multinational force to help stabilize the country — as differing factions of […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jul 13, 2012

US and NATO Options for Dealing with Assad

By Sarwar Kashmeri

“Assad must go” seems to be the only refrain in Washington and Brussels. However, America’s national interests may lie in a different direction. Kurt Volker, former US Ambassador to NATO, joins in conversation with Sarwar Kashmeri, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. (8 minute audio podcast)

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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