Syria: Post-Assad
Charles Lister, 10 December 2025 14:00 GMT Online
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Twelve months ago, following thirteen years of civil war, the then rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) launched a lightening offensive which saw the group take control of huge swathes of Syrian territory, ultimately leading to the capture of the capital city, Damascus, and the fleeing of long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad, ending fifty-four years of Assad family rule.
Shortly after the fall of Assad, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa became the de facto leader of Syria and in January 2025 was appointed President of the Syrian Transitional Government. Since then, Syria has seen the dissolution and merger of multiple rebel factions into the transitional government’s Ministry of Defence, the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with many regional and global powers, the removal of the Ba’athist era constitution, the signing of an interim constitution and establishment of a People’s Assembly to draft a new permanent constitution and the lifting of sanctions by a number of Western governments, most notably the US and UK. However, despite these positive steps and the promise of transitional justice and democracy to come, the country still faces huge challenges.
Continued violent clashes, airstrikes and military incursions by the Israeli Defence Force, a severe humanitarian crisis and a broken economy all pose significant challenges for al-Sharaa and the Transitional Government. This lecture will explore what has happened since the fall of Assad and consider what Syria’s future might look like.
Charles Lister is a senior fellow and the director of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute (MEI), where he focuses on Syria, terrorism, and insurgency across the Levant. His work also covers broader regional security dynamics and the evolution of jihadist movements, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Mr Lister is concurrently a consultant to the United Nations’ International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria.
Before joining MEI, he was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Doha and a senior consultant to the internationally backed Syria Track II Dialogue Initiative, where he led years of direct engagement with the leadership of Syrian armed opposition groups. He is the author of The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency (Oxford University Press, 2016) and his next book, also on Syria, is forthcoming.
Guest Host
Dr Rim Turkmani is the Syria Research Director and a Senior Research Fellow with the Conflict and Civicness Research Group at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a member of the Women’s Advisory Board to the UN Special Envoy to Syria and has been invited twice to give expert evidence on Syria to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. She appears regularly in Arabic and English media commenting on Syria.
She is an astrophysicist by training having previously written and curated on the history of Islamic science and culture, particularly during the scientific revolution of the 17th century.
