Webinar On-Demand: Rethinking U.S. and European policy towards Syria

A webinar hosted on May 6th, 2020 by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the European Council on Foreign Relations assessing U.S. and European policy towards Syria.

With Bashar al-Assad’s immediate survival seemingly assured, is it time for a broader re-assessment of Western policy towards Syria? After nine years of devastating conflict, what can still be achieved in the country and how can the U.S. and European countries now best advance their interests, while also addressing the needs of the long-suffering Syrian people? Can a transition agenda still be pursued, should Syria be viewed as a theatre to confront Russia and Iran, and to what extent are U.S. and European policy likely to remain aligned? What might a viable new approach now look like?

This discussion addresses those questions, and more, with panelists Julien Barnes-Dacey of ECFR, Steven Simon of the Quincy Institute, Rim Turkmani of the London School of Economics, and moderator John Hudson, national security reporter for the Washington Post.