Featured reading

The United States in Syria: Why it still matters

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 United States in Syria: Why it still matters

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 United States in Syria: Why it still matters

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 United States in Syria: Why it still matters

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 United States in Syria: Why it still matters

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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Learn more about the Middle East Programs

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.

EXPLORE THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL’S MIDDLE EAST PROGRAMS

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Sign up for the MENASource newsletter, highlighting pieces that follow democratic transitions and economic changes throughout the region.



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Content

Issue Brief

Sep 24, 2019

The United States in Syria: Why it still matters

By Frederic C. Hof

The objective of the United States in Syria must be a full political transition from criminal, terrorist rule by family and entourage to a consensual, legitimate system featuring rule of law. Its achievement would, barring unanticipated regime collapse, take years of patient, focused, and disciplined effort.

Politics & Diplomacy Resilience & Society

Issue Brief

Sep 24, 2019

The United States in Syria: Why it still matters

By Frederic C. Hof

The objective of the United States in Syria must be a full political transition from criminal, terrorist rule by family and entourage to a consensual, legitimate system featuring rule of law. Its achievement would, barring unanticipated regime collapse, take years of patient, focused, and disciplined effort.

Politics & Diplomacy Resilience & Society

SyriaSource

Sep 20, 2019

Samantha Power’s uneasy legacy on Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

It is the memoir of someone who is anything but a time server; someone who truly cares about things and who has tried—often successfully—to make a difference for the better.

Politics & Diplomacy Syria

SyriaSource

Sep 12, 2019

War and art: The graffiti movement in Syria

By Rana Riziq

A local Syrian civil society organization, Kesh Malek, is focused on supplying humanitarian aid and services to Syrians throughout Syria. One of its successful media campaigns this year is the Syria Banksy project.

Civil Society Syria

IranSource

Sep 3, 2019

Iran counters ‘Maximum Pressure’ by reaching out to the Kurds

By Tamer Badawi

Sensing the immense geopolitical challenges Iran is facing, these Kurdish groups—which seek autonomy through armed struggle—might be testing the waters amid mounting regional pressure on Tehran.

Crisis Management Iran

Report

Aug 13, 2019

The future of northeast Syria

By Aaron Stein and Emily Burchfield

Executive Summary The future of northeast Syria is unsettled after eight years of civil war and the US intervention to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). It also faces the various divergent interests of powerful external actors, including Russia and Turkey. In mid-April 2019, the Atlantic Council, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, and the Foreign Policy […]

Resilience & Society Rule of Law

In the News

Aug 9, 2019

El-Gamal in The Cairo Review: In Syria, reconstruction brings little hope for peace

By Atlantic Council

Conflict Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding

SyriaSource

Aug 5, 2019

The evolution of Syrian revolutionary art

By Natasha Hall

Perhaps, it is unsurprising then, that political posters and street art became so ubiquitous in the Syrian Revolution. The regimes of the Middle East knew the political potential for art. For this reason, it has always been closely monitored.

Syria

SyriaSource

Aug 1, 2019

Why is the US clashing with the Dutch over Syria?

By Grace Wermenbol

As the women’s national soccer teams battled it out for the World Cup title in early July, another clash was taking place in the political realm between the Americans and the Dutch over the latter’s military contribution in Syria.

Syria

SyriaSource

Aug 1, 2019

Syrians at the Turkish border: humiliation, torture, and death

By Tesbih Habbal

Yet the journey is fraught with danger that doesn’t end at the border. If anything, the border itself is the most dangerous part of the journey with Turkish border guards known as “Jandarma,” who frequently capture, beat, and steal from Syrian refugees only to send them back into Syria.

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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