The Search for a Syria Strategy: What Biden Can Learn From Trump’s Successes and Failures

Jul 27, 2021

Also published in Foreign Affairs
Syrian flag over a ruined building destroyed by bombing
About the Authors
Andrew J. Tabler
Andrew J. Tabler

Andrew J. Tabler is the Martin J. Gross Senior Fellow in the Linda and Tony Rubin Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute, where he focuses on Syria and U.S. policy in the Levant, and Director of the Institute's Junior Research Program.

Articles & Testimony

Washington needs a special envoy to develop a coherent, intelligence-supported political strategy aimed at isolating Assad, limiting his facilitators, and enabling humanitarian NGOs.

In recent weeks, Washington’s Middle East watchers have been abuzz with talk of U.S. President Joe Biden’s ongoing Syria policy review. During its first months in office, the Biden administration’s approach to Damascus has been notably cautious; unlike his predecessors, Biden has yet to appoint a high-level Syria envoy or to sanction a single person or entity connected to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian regime. But even though Biden would clearly prefer to pursue other foreign policy goals, Syria will increasingly demand his attention. Assad has grown comfortable with his country’s transformation into something akin to a North Korea on the Mediterranean...

Read the full article on the Foreign Affairs website.

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