What Lies Ahead for Syria?

“The material needs are immense. [Syria] has de-developed over the course of this war. It has gone from a middle-income country to a very impoverished country. I don’t dispute we could use international assistance. On the other hand, Syria has been on the receiving end of record-breaking amounts of humanitarian assistance throughout the course of this conflict. And despite those immense quantities of aid, we have had this continued impoverishment of the country because there are more underlying structural problems that need to be resolved. And one of those of course is sanctions.”

— Rana B. Khoury, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

About the Episode

Syria’s 13-year civil war came to a stunning end on Dec. 8, 2024, when rebel fighters led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled the Assad regime. With the country now deeply fragmented and impoverished, what lies ahead under the transitional government of Ahmad al-Sharaa?

Rana B. Khoury, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Ibrahim Al-Assil, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, joined “Baker Briefing” to discuss the regional reaction to Dec. 8, the structural challenges facing the rebuilding process, and prospects for the return of refugees and internally displaced Syrians.

This conversation was recorded on April 29, 2025, prior to a Baker Institute event featuring Khoury, Al-Assil, and Center for Strategic and International Studies senior fellow Natasha Hall on Syrian displacement. Watch it here.

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Transcript

A full transcript of this episode is available here. This transcript was AI-generated and has not been through editorial review.

About ‘Baker Briefing’

Hosted by David M. Satterfield,  the “Baker Briefing” podcast delivers timely analysis on breaking policy developments and other critical policy issues of the day in conversations with experts at the Baker Institute. New episodes are released weekly.

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This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the individual author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.