Featured reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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Middle East Programs

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Content

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

New Atlanticist

Jun 29, 2012

Syria’s Rebels Are Winning

By Michele Dunne

Distracted by the tumult caused by the Syrian shoot down of a Turkish F 4, few observers have noted that the Syrian conflict has turned a corner.  What I myself termed a “slow motion train wreck” of inexorable slaughter of civilians by government forces and militias just a couple of weeks ago has now shifted […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jun 28, 2012

Former Turkish Official: Assad Fall May Lead to Chaos in Syria

By Barbara Slavin

Former Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis, one of Turkey’s longest-serving diplomats, said the situation between Turkey and Syria might actually get worse if President Bashar al-Assad leaves or is overthrown because chaos will hurt Syria first and Turkey second.

Syria
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Experts

Fellow

Bahar Ghandehari

Junior Policy Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Afghanistan English

Fellow

Ömer Özkizilcik

Nonresident Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic English

Staff

Jonathan Panikoff

Director, Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative

Economy & Business Financial Regulation

Active affiliation

Reem Salahi

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic Democratic Transitions

Fellow

Joumana Seif

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic English

Fellow

Samantha Sultoon

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Economic Statecraft Initiative GeoEconomics Center

Cuba East Asia
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