logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2024
22m 26s

Piecing Together What Happened in Syria

CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies
About this episode

CSIS’s Norman Roule, who served for thirty-four years in the Central Intelligence Agency, managing significant programs relating to the Middle East, joins the podcast to discuss the actors that enabled the Assad regime to survive for so long, how bureaucratic rot in Russia and Iran enabled Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to move south so quickly, and actions the U.S. can take to support peace in the region.

Up next
Jul 2025
AI Competition and Security: A discussion with Kemba Walden and Devin Lynch
“We’re in a whole tangled mess…we’ve gotten ourselves into a tangled mess around not just securing our infrastructure, but also around competition for the pieces of our infrastructure.” AI has become a cornerstone of modern defense, economic security, commerce, and more. But with ... Show More
31m 11s
Jul 2025
Keeping Our Beaches Clean with the Surfrider Foundation
This summer, millions of Americans will head to the beach to beat the heat. But how clean is the water they're swimming in? At many beaches, especially on the East Coast, water quality is rarely tested for bacteria, pollution, and other health hazards that may be dangerous to bot ... Show More
16m 13s
Jun 2025
NATO’s “Brain-Dead” Summit
“I think what happened here is Europeans made a lot of commitments that they don’t have any intention of fulfilling—at least in the near term—and this is all about appeasing President Trump to keep him engaged with the NATO alliance.” At the recent summit in The Hague, Netherland ... Show More
24m 44s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2018
The Khashoggi Case: Intel Veteran Norman Roule on Implications for Saudi Arabia
In this episode of Intelligence Matters, guest host retired Navy Admiral Sandy Winnefeld interviews Norman Roule, who spent decades at the CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence managing significant programs related to the Middle East. Roule, who recently returne ... Show More
30m 6s
Dec 2024
348. Syria, Afghanistan, and The Rest Is Classified
It has been thirteen years since Bashar al-Assad triggered a civil war which would kill hundreds of thousands of people and devastate Syria. Recent events have shown just how far his rule has shattered the nation. Today Alastair and Rory are joined by former CIA Syria Analyst Dav ... Show More
16m 33s
Feb 2025
372. Syria, al-Sharaa, and the future of the Middle East
What does al-Sharaa's rise to power mean for Syria? Given his surprise takeover, how will today’s CIA analysts be changing the way they think about the country and what happens next? Will Syria be the next Libya? Join Rory and Alastair as they discuss Syria’s rapidly shifting po ... Show More
1h 6m
Jul 2019
Syria: The Rise and Fallout of the House of Assad with Sam Dagher
<p>After eight years of civil war in Syria, with hundreds of thousands of its citizens dead and millions more fleeing the country, one question looms large: how did things get so bad? During those early days of peaceful protest, what prompted a shoot-to-kill order from the highes ... Show More
20m 46s
Mar 2019
Syria
This episode brings us to one of the most complicated conflicts raging in the Middle East. Thomas and Aimen both know the country well and walk us through the actors and their motives. They’ll also explain how Syria became such a killing field as a result of the Arab Spring and h ... Show More
1h 6m
Dec 2024
Special: Syria's Post-Assad Scramble
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Will Todman and Natasha Hall, senior fellows at the CSIS Middle East Program, for a special episode on the sudden collapse of the Assad regime and what will replace it. Together, they discuss the promise and peril of this historic mome ... Show More
27m 55s
Aug 2025
Building a Unified Army in a Fractured Syria
In this episode of MEnbar, Marc Owen Jones speaks with Haid Haid, non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, about efforts to unify Syria’s fragmented armed factions into a national defense force. Haid examines the realities of paramilitary groups su ... Show More
47m 39s
Nov 2022
S1E6: The Regime Today
What position is the Syrian regime really in today? How does it really function? And how, after 11 years of war, and with sanctions placed on the country, is the regime making money? We look at the attempts to stop the normalisation of the Assad regime, and the cases that attempt ... Show More
27m 8s
Mar 2025
Syria’s future after Assad
In this episode of MEnbar, host Marc Owen Jones welcomes Nader Kabbani, Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, to analyze the suddencollapse of the Assad regime and its aftermath. Kabbani explores the economic and institutional decay ... Show More
45m 6s
Apr 2021
A CIA Spy in Syria, and US Responses to Russian, Chinese and Other Adversary Hacking
This week, in the debut edition of the SpyTalk podcast, co-host Jeff Stein talks to the Washington Post’s Joby Warrick about an extraordinary CIA operation in Syria, as told in his new book, Red Line. Jeff and co-host Jeanne Meserve also discuss the Biden administration’s recent ... Show More
54m 16s