Charles Lister
Charles Lister is a senior fellow and Director of the Countering Terrorism and Extremism Program at the Middle East Institute

ISIS After the Death of its Leader

Two weeks ago, ISIS launched its biggest attack in Syria and Iraq since its territorial defeat nearly three years ago, in March 2019. According to the Syrian Democratic Forces, as many as 300 ISIS militants launched an assault on al-Sina Prison in Hasakeh city late on January 20. Two suicide…

Will ISIS Succeed in Attracting Taliban Defectors?

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan two months ago, the international community has tentatively engaged with the new ‘government’ in Kabul, seeking to explore what kind of relations are possible with a Taliban-run entity. Until now, this phase of exploratory dialogue has resulted in very…

Will the Regional Initiatives Work with Damascus?

Nine months after the arrival of President Joe Biden into the White House, a new American foreign policy “philosophy” for the Middle East is beginning to emerge. Several previous administrations have sought to “pivot away” from the Middle East, but in doing so, they have disengaged too quickly and…

What Future Awaits Afghanistan and the World?

On August 31, President Joe Biden addressed the American public and the world at large, and remarked that having withdrawn troops the night before, we had ended the war in Afghanistan. The decision to disengage he said, was “the best decision for America” and going forward, US foreign policy would…

The War Against Terrorism Is Far from Over

In policymaking circles in Washington DC, it has become common to hear the claim that twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, the war on terrorism is finally coming to an end. For some, this is because the United States is withdrawing from “forever wars” like in Afghanistan and reducing its…

US Policy in Syria in 2021

More than 100 days have now passed since President Joe Biden entered the White House and so far, all key aspects of US policy in Syria have remained almost precisely the same as they were in President Trump’s final year in office. Although much of Washington DC’s policy attention is focused on…

2021 Will Be a Defining Year for Syria

In two months’, time, Syria’s crisis will turn ten years old – a grim milestone for what has been the most deadly and destructive civil conflict in recent history. When tens of thousands of Syrians took peacefully to the streets and called for political reforms, few could have imagined the scale of…

5 Steps to Amend the US Path in Syria

“Going forward, we do have points of leverage to effectuate some positive changes… there has to be some kind of political transition.” The Trump administration has ensured that “what diplomatic process exists, the US is absent… I can’t guarantee success, but I can guarantee that a Joe Biden…

After 5 Years of Russian Intervention in Syria

Before 2015, Russia was a largely inconsequential actor in the Middle East – seemingly lacking the means or credibility to exert a meaningful influence on individual countries, let alone the region as a whole. However, everything changed when the Kremlin militarily intervened in Syria in September…

Russia's Media Campaign Against Assad

In recent weeks, a flurry of commentary from prominent voices and publications in Russia has seen a wave of criticism thrown in the direction of Syria’s Assad regime. From RIA FAN to Pravda, Kommersant, and the Valdai Club, analyses accused the regime of corruption, warlordism, and incompetence, as…