The Middle East Institute’s (MEI) Syria Program is pleased to convene a public panel bringing together three unique voices to reflect on Syria from the outside – events past and present, opportunities taken and missed, lessons learned and what the future might hold.

In his debut novel Damascus Station, David McCloskey provides readers with a thrilling tale of espionage amid the early and explosive phases of Syria’s crisis. While fictional, the book conveys an authentic view of both the complexity and brutality that shaped the trajectory of a conflict that has now persisted for more than a decade. Taking advantage of decades of their respective experience in the intelligence community and in frontline journalism, David McCloskey, Marc Polymeropoulos, and Clarissa Ward will offer their views on any number of consequential questions on Syria and Syria policy.

What did Syria mean to the U.S. and its allies before the 2011 uprising? Was the West right to back the protest movement and what did it get wrong after choosing to do so? Ten years on, Syria’s regime appears not just to have survived, but to be on a slow path towards regional reintegration. Given what we know about Syria, what does the future hold and what role should the U.S. and its allies have in the country going forward?

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