When rebel forces seized Damascus in December 2024, the long-standing rule of Bashar al-Assad quickly collapsed after more than 50 years of Assad family dominance. The country now faces the daunting task of rebuilding from decades of war, repression, and deep social fractures.
Even just months into the transition, signs of both hope and fragility are emerging. Over one million displaced Syrians have returned home, according to the United Nations, marking a tentative step in post-conflict recovery.
The Syrian government has also signed $1.5 billion in tourism investment contracts aimed at rehabilitating destroyed infrastructure and historic sites. At a diplomatic level, Ukraine recently restored ties with the new Syrian authorities, signaling shifting international attitudes toward Syria’s reintegration.
Yet the road ahead is littered with complications. The transitional government, led by interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, announced a provisional constitutional declaration in March 2025 that will govern Syria for five years.
In February, a “National Dialogue Conference” drew about 600 participants to debate institutional reform, transitional justice, and integration of armed groups into a unified state military. Still, some factions criticized the process as lacking full inclusion, including Kurdish groups and communities from historically marginalized regions.
A key mechanism to reckon with the past is Syria’s newly established National Commission for Transitional Justice, launched in May 2025 to investigate abuses carried out under the Assad regime and coordinate reparations efforts.
But critics caution that its narrow mandate is insufficient to address atrocities committed during the civil war by opposition groups. Moreover, sporadic sectarian violence, especially in Alawite and Druze communities, has flared intermittently, reminding many how delicate sectarian balance remains.
The legacy of Bashar al-Assad looms large. Under his regime, Syria became deeply authoritarian, employing secret police, revoking political freedoms, and launching brutal crackdowns over decades. Hundreds of thousands died during the civil war; countless others were tortured, disappeared, or forced into exile.
Many Syrians now seek justice, truth, and guarantees that impunity will not return.
Still, Syria’s transitional leadership treads a precarious line. It must navigate internal rivalries, manage expectations for rapid reconstruction, and persuade the international community to ease sanctions while ensuring accountability.
The wounds are deep; the risks ever present. Whether Syria can piece itself back together without relapsing into violence remains one of the great uncertainties of the region’s future.
San Antonio author David Lesch is one of the better-known Western scholars and commentators on Syria. He has written extensively on Syria’s history, politics, and the evolution of the Assad regime.
In “Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad,” published in 2012, Lesch offers a narrative of Bashar al-Assad’s early promise, the drift toward authoritarianism, and the eruption of the uprising during the Arab Spring. He uses personal impressions from meetings and travels in Damascus, and frames Assad’s crackdown as a turning point that eroded his legitimacy.
The book “Dodgers to Damascus” by Catherine Nixon Cooke documents this part of the world that has been shrouded in mystery and plagued by conflict, power struggles, and warfare, and offers a firsthand glimpse inside modern Syria, its neighboring countries, and their connections to the rest of the world.
Guest:
David Lesch is the Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where he specializes in Middle East history and politics. A prolific author of numerous books and publications on the region, he is known for his work on Syria, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the U.S. role in the Middle East, including a biography of Bashar al-Assad. Lesch has also gained recognition as a leading scholar on Syria and a participant in discussions on the evolving geopolitical landscape of the region.
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This interview will be recorded live Wednesday, October 1, 2025.
