Conflicted Community: Aaron Zelin – Assad’s Fall and the Future of Syria

ANOTHER EMERGENCY EPISODE Things are, as ever, moving at lightning
speed in the Middle East, as last weekend on December 8th, Bashar
al-Assad and his Syrian regime fell. After 13 years of civil war,
and more than 50 years of his family’s rule, in an extraordinary
turn of events rebel groups from the south and the north marched on
Damascus. Assad has fled to Moscow; the future for Syria is
unclear. It’s one of the most momentous events in modern Middle
Eastern history, so this week Thomas invited one of the world’s
leading experts on the Syrian Civil War onto the show to help make
sense of it (and he’s a dear listener to Conflicted himself!) –
Aaron Zelin. Aaron is the Gloria and Ken Levy Fellow at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Visiting Research
Scholar in the Department of Politics at Brandeis University, the
founder of the hugely acclaimed website Jihadology, and the author
of the really excellent book Your Sons Are At Your Service:
Tunisia’s Missionaries of Jihad. Many listeners will no doubt have
also been glued to his social media feeds over the past week, for
updates and analysis, as he brought his incredible insight in real
time as Assad’s regime melted away. Thomas and Aaron discuss the
incredible events over the weekend, before looking ahead to what
the future might hold for Syria’s minority communities – from the
Kurds to the Alawites – and how this new regime will affect the
always fascinating geopolitics of the region. To listen to the full
episode, you’ll need to subscribe to the Conflicted Community. And
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