Charting Syria’s Future

A Strategic Framework for Recovery and Renewal

By: Salam Fayyad, John Balouziyeh, Thomas Hinds, Heather Mercer, Sejal Goud, Judah Guggenheim, Martin Palomo, Zubaida Qaissi

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The fall of the Assad regime ended more than six decades of authoritarian rule in Syria and opened an era of remarkable renewal. Today, the country has achieved what many thought impossible: a functioning state, ministries and courts back in operation, embassies reopened, and billions in investment pledged. A nation once designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism has joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, acceded to the Global IHL Initiative, and pledged to destroy its remaining chemical weapons. Charting Syria’s Future examines this historic moment, showing how a country many feared would relapse into civil war has instead laid the foundations for durable stability.

But the work is not done. Syria, together with its international partners, must now build on hard-won gains before complacency or renewed violence forecloses the options this moment has opened. Written for policymakers and all those invested in Syria’s renewal, this book pioneers a coherent path toward a future the Syrian people want and deserve.

Spanning eight policy domains critical to Syria’s stabilization—promoting security sector reform and minority protection, designing a disability justice framework, strengthening Syrian civil society, reintegrating refugees and IDPs, rebuilding digital public infrastructure, engaging external stakeholders through diplomacy, and leveraging the removal of sanctions—Charting Syria’s Future presents an achievable strategic framework for Syria’s recovery and renewal.

Dr. Salam Fayyad is an economist and former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1987 to 2001, his tenure included serving as IMF resident representative in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He then served as manager of the Arab Bank in Palestine. Currently, Dr. Fayyad is a Daniella Lipper Coules ’95 Distinguished Visitor in Foreign Affairs at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is also a Distinguished Statesman with the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security and a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution.