U.S. policy on Syria: Is regime change worth state failure?


 

Most observers assess that Bashar al-Assad has won the Syrian civil war, even as outside powers still seek to expand their influence and presence on the ground. As the civil war has ebbed, half of all Syrians have been forced from their homes, their health is in grave jeopardy, and poverty is rife. U.S. policy is to use sanctions on Syria and on foreign aid organizations to unseat Assad, while creating a quagmire for Russia. The consequences of this policy have worsened the situation of ordinary Syrians without having forced Assad out or thwarting Russia’s interest in Syria. Should the U.S. stay the course in the hope of ejecting Assad and frustrating Moscow, or should it relent and permit reconstruction in Syria to proceed?
 
Sept 2020

10
1PM ET
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Join us for a timely and important conversation with:

Steven Simon

Steven Simon is professor in the Practice of International Relations at Colby College, following stints as the John J. McCloy ’16 Professor of History at Amherst College and lecturer in government at Dartmouth College. Prior to this, he was executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies for the US and Middle East. From 2011 to 2012 he served on the National Security Council staff as senior director for Middle Eastern and North African affairs. He also worked on the NSC staff 1994 - 1999 on counterterrorism and Middle East security policy. These assignments followed a fifteen-year career at the U.S. Department of State.
 

Michael Doran

Michael Doran is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He specializes in Middle East security issues. In the administration of President George W. Bush, Doran served in the White House as a senior director in the National Security Council. He also served in the Bush administration as a senior advisor in the State Department and a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Pentagon. Before coming to Hudson, Doran was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has also held teaching positions at New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Central Florida. 

Rim Turkmani

Rim Turkmani is a research fellow at the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She directs the Syria conflict research program at the unit. Her policy-oriented research work focuses on identity politics, legitimate governance, transforming war economy it into peace economy and the relationship between local and external drivers of the conflict. She is a member of the Women's Advisory Board to the UN special envoy to Syria and sits on the advisory board of airwars.org which monitor the International coalition strikes against ISIS. 

Joshua Landis (Moderator)

Joshua Landis is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and Sandra Mackey Chair and professor of Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma in the College of International Studies and director of the Center for Middle East Studies. He writes and manages SyriaComment.com, a daily newsletter on Syrian politics that attracts some 50,000 page-reads a month. He is past president of the Syrian Studies Association. 

 
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