Nearly thirteen years into the war in Syria, the crisis continues to bleed across borders, impacting countries in the region and beyond. The political process is stalemated and accountability is an increasingly distant prospect. Even though frontlines have been static for three years, an unprecedented humanitarian crisis now exists. With attention dwindling and international funds diminishing, Syria’s future is darkening and instability threatens to escalate once again.
Crafting a sustainable multilateral approach
Despite a series of significant crises and challenges around the world, accepting the current status quo in Syria is both dangerous and unsustainable. Together with European and regional partners, the US can improve the situation in Syria and protect US and European interests through the application of a bipartisan, practical, and coherent approach. Little work has been done so far to identify areas of shared priority issues that could be leveraged as pillars of a meaningful and realistic multilateral approach to resolving Syria’s crisis.
To fill this vacuum, the Middle East Institute (MEI), Atlantic Council (AC), European Institute of Peace (EIP), and Syrian Civil Society Network (Madaniya) are launching the Syria Strategy Project. For the next 12 months, MEI, AC, and EIP will coordinate an intensive process of engagement with subject matter experts and policymakers in the US, Europe, and the Middle East to develop a holistic strategy to sustainably resolve Syria’s crisis. This process, held almost entirely behind closed doors, will incorporate Syrian experts, Syrian civil society, and Syrian stakeholders at every step.
To help shape and channel the project’s efforts, MEI, AC, and EIP will mobilize a strategic advisory group comprising highly experienced former officials who will be consulted throughout the engagement process, to ensure policy recommendations remain focused and realistic. Those recommendations will emerge and be shaped through six distinct working groups that will be engaged over the year to deliberate on policy issues within their respective areas:
- Accountability & security sector reform
- Humanitarian aid
- Economic recovery
- Security
- Governance
- Political process
Throughout the process, MEI, AC, and EIP will work with Madaniya to ensure a broad Syrian engagement and to identify Syrian scholars to author a series of strategic briefs relevant to key policy topics. The project will provide a policy-oriented analysis of all issues related to Syria laying out a comprehensive multilateral approach to deal with Syria’s crisis, and will provide a forum for experts across the political spectrum, and with varying functional expertise, to discuss, debate, and to provide concrete strategic options for policymakers.
Experts
Orwa Ajjoub
PhD Candidate and Political Analyst
Malmö University
Reza Afshar OBE
Executive Director
Independent Diplomat
Assaad Al Achi
Executive Director
Baytna
Bassam Alahmad
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ)
Wael Alalwani
Co-Founder and Director
Observatory of Political and Economic Networks (OPEN)
Zahra Al Barzai
Research Director
Syrian Legal Development Programme
Labib al-Nahhas De La Ossa
Programme Director
Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity
Jon Alterman
Director
Middle East Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Wa’el Alzayat
Senior Fellow
Middle East Institute
Sareta Ashraph
Senior Legal Consultant
Strategic Litigation Project, Atlantic Council
Senior Legal Consultant
Center for Justice and Accountabilit
Senior Legal Consultant
US Holocaust Memorial Museum Center for the Prevention of Genocide
Joseph Bahout
Director
Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut
Elise Baker
Senior Staff Lawyer
Strategic Litigation Project, Atlantic Council
Joel R. Charney
Retired international humanitarian leader
Charles Lister
Director
Syria Program and Countering Terrorism and Extremism Program, Middle East Institute
Steven Cook
Senior Fellow
Middle East and Africa Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
Mark Cutts
Senior Advisor
Center for Humanitarian Dialogue
Mazen Darwish
Director
Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression
Fadi Dayoub
Board Member
Madaniya Civil Society Network
Michel Duclos
Special Advisor and Resident Fellow
Institut Montaigne
Haian Dukhan
Lecturer in Politics and IR
Centre for Syrian Studies, Teesside University/University of St. Andrews
Agnes Favier
Project Director
The Syria Initiative
Jeffrey Feltman
Visiting Fellow in International Diplomacy
Brookings Institution
Ambassador Robert S. Ford
Senior Fellow
Middle East Institute
Marie Forestier
Senior Advisor
European Institute of Peace (EIP)
Mohammed Alaa Ghanem
Policy Chief
American Coalition for Syria and Syrian American Council
Mazen Gharibah
Research Associate
Conflict Research Program, London School of Economics
Dr. Haid Haid
Consulting Research Fellow
Chatham House
Bahjat Hajjar
Executive Director
Local Administration Councils Unit (LACU)
Natasha Hall
Senior Fellow
Middle East Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Eyad Hamid
Senior Researcher
Human Rights and Business Unit, Syrian Legal Development Program
Sinan Hatahet
Nonresident Senior Fellow
Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East programs, Atlantic Council
Dr. Steven Heydemann
Ketcham Chair in Middle East Studies
Smith College
Nonresident Senior Fellow
Center for Middle East Policy, The Brookings Institution
Fredric Hof
Diplomat in Residence
Bard College
Abir Haj Ibrahim
Co-Founder and Executive Manager
Mobaderoon
Hozan Ibrahim
Co-Founder and Executive Director
IMPACT Research
Qutaiba Idlbi
Senior Fellow
Atlantic Council
James Jeffrey
Chair of the Middle East Program
Wilson Center
Hind Kabawat
Director, Interfaith Peacebuilding
George Mason University
Founder & Director
Syrian Center for Dialogue, Peace & Reconciliation
Member
High Negotiations Committee
Ammar Kahf
Executive Director
Syrian Forum
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Omran Center
Mariana Karkoutly
Senior Fellow
Humanity in Action
Dr. Mohamad Katoub
Project Manager
IMPACT
Brian Katulis
Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy and Senior Advisor to the President
Middle East Institute
Hani Khabbaz
Director General
Syrian Recovery Trust Fund
Dareen Khalifa
Senior Advisor for Dialogue Promotion International Crisis Group
Lina Khatib
Associate Fellow
Chatham House
Amneh Khoulani
Executive Director
Adalaty
Jeremy Konyndyck
President
Refugees International
Ian Larson
Chief Syria Analyst
Center for Operational Analysis and Research (COAR)
Felix Legrand
Research Fellow
Noria Research
Jesse Marks
Senior Advocate for Middle East
Refugees International
John McLaughlin
Professor of Practice
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Hanny Megally
Deputy Director and Senior Fellow
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Michael Mulroy
Non-Resident Senior Fellow
Middle East Institute
Dr. Yasmine Nahlawi
Legal Consultant Investigations Team
Syrian British Consortium
Vali Nasr
Professor of Middle East Studies and International Affairs
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Elena Naughton
Senior Program Expert
International Center for Transitional Justice
Eric Oehlerich
Co-Founder
Lobo Institute
Ibrahim Olabi
Member
Guernica 37
Munqeth Othman Agha
PhD Researcher
University of Trento
Richard Outzen
Nonresident Senior Fellow
Atlantic Council in Turkey, Atlantic Council
Ömer Özkizilcik
Nonresident Senior Fellow
Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Atlantic Council
Oula Ramadan
Founder and Director
Badael
Stephen Rapp
Commissioner
Commission for International Justice and Accountability
Hazem Rihawi
Senior Program Manager
American Relief Coalition for Syria
Amb. William Roebuck
Executive Vice President
The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington
David Rothkopf
Chief Executive Officer
The Rothkopf Group
Caroline Rose
Director
Strategic Blind Spots Portfolio, New Lines Institute
Joumana Seif
Research Fellow
European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
Dr. Karam Shaar
Co-Founder
Observatory of Political and Economic Networks (OPEN)
Salman Shaikh
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
The Shaikh Group
Gareth Sweeney
UN Director
Crisis Action
Mutasem Syoufi
Executive Director
The Day After (TDA)
Rim Turkmani
Director Syria Conflict Research Program London School of Economics
Tom Warrick
Nonresident Senior Fellow
Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Atlantic Council
Gregory Waters
Nonresident Scholar
Middle East Institute
Maha Yahya
Director
Malcom H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Matthew Zais
Nonresident Senior Fellow
Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Atlantic Council
Matthew Zweig
Senior Director of Policy
Foundation for Defense of Democracies