Issue 2246: After the Assad Regime

The sudden collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024, brought an end to a family dictatorship that had lasted for half a century. Syria had been a brutal police state with extensive surveillance, notorious prisons and egregious human rights violations. The regime’s war against its restive population had led to extensive internal displacement and waves of refugees that have destabilized Europe.   In terms of the geopolitics of the region, Syria had provided Russia with a reentry into the Middle East, just as it facilitated arms transfers from Iran to Lebanon in support of the "axis of resistance." But now Islamist forces have overthrown Assad. What is in store for Syria and its neighbors?