In this edition of The New Lines Institute Middle East Center’s Post-Assad Podcast series, Middle East Center co-director Nicholas A. Heras sits down with Voice of America (VOA) reporter Sirwan Kajjo to assess how the emerging regime in Damascus will engage with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Northeast Syria. Sirwan, a well-known Syrian-American intellectual and journalist, works for the Extremism Watch Desk at VOA where he focuses on Islamic militancy, extremism, and conflict in the Middle East and beyond that region. Heras and Kajjo also discuss how the emerging government in Damascus will lead the process of creating a post-Assad order and whether that order can successfully incorporate all the country’s different communities.

This week, U.S. and Russian officials met in Riyadh without any Ukrainian representation to discuss first steps for a Ukraine cease-fire, while U.S. President Donald Trump caused a diplomatic stir by calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator.” In the Middle East, Israel and Hamas continued their prisoner exchanges and agreed to commence with the second phase of their cease-fire agreement by the end of the week, while regional states discussed alternative plans for the future of Gaza. In the Indo-Pacific, China filed official complaints with the World Trade Organization against U.S. tariffs, as Trump suggested he would expand tariffs to include 25% taxes on all imports of automobile, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical products. Read the full Weekly Forecast Monitory here: https://newlinesinstitute.org/forecast/week-20250221/ Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This week, U.S. and Russian officials met in Riyadh without any Ukrainian representation to discuss first steps for a Ukraine cease-fire, while U.S. President Donald Trump caused a diplomatic stir by calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator.” In the Middle East, Israel and Hamas continued their prisoner exchanges and agreed to commence with the second phase of their cease-fire agreement by the end of the week, while regional states discussed alternative plans for the future of Gaza. In the Indo-Pacific, China filed official complaints with the World Trade Organization against U.S. tariffs, as Trump suggested he would expand tariffs to include 25% taxes on all imports of automobile, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical products. Read the full Weekly Forecast Monitory here: https://newlinesinstitute.org/forecast/week-20250221/ Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This week, the U.S. floated the conditions for a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine as President Donald Trump held phone calls with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the Middle East, Trump threatened Hamas if the group did not surrender all its hostages as scheduled and further threatened to cut off aid for Jordan and Egypt if they did not agree to take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza. In the Indo-Pacific, China’s tariffs on select U.S. imports went into effect, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Trump in Washington. Trump announced he would impose 25% tariffs on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum, drawing strong reactions globally. Read the full Weekly Forecast Monitory here: https://newlinesinstitute.org/forecast/week-20250214/ Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode of Gendering Geopolitics, New Lines’ own Emily Prey sits down with Rajaa Altalli, the co-founder of the Center for Civil Society and Democracy and member of the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board for the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria. Together, they discuss the potential roles that women should play in Syria's politics moving forward, the process of reconciliation in the country, and need for the establishment of representative democracy in the post-Assad era.

This week, President Donald Trump suggested the United States could take ownership of Gaza during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while negotiations continued in Doha on the implementation of the next phase of Israel’s cease-fire deal with Hamas. In the Indo-Pacific, China announced several retaliatory measures following Trump’s implementation of 10% tariffs on all Chinese imports. In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be willing to meet directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while the White House announced preparations to send a delegation to Kyiv. Trump postponed 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada by one month, following assurances from both countries they would commit more resources to monitor their respective borders. Read the full Weekly Forecast Monitory here: https://newlinesinstitute.org/forecast/week-20250207/

This week, in the Middle East, Israel and Hamas continued to conduct prisoner exchanges while Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend their cease-fire. In the Indo-Pacific, U.S. President Donald Trump announced possible tariffs on Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, and the emergence of a new Chinese AI model sent shocks through the U.S. tech and financial sectors. In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the EU discussed resuming Russian natural gas imports in exchange for a cease-fire in Ukraine, while Latvia reported another incident of damage to underwater internet cables in the Baltic Sea. Read the full Weekly Forecast Monitory here: https://newlinesinstitute.org/forecast/week-20250131/ Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this edition of The New Lines Institute Middle East Center’s Post-Assad Podcast series, Middle East Center co-director Nicholas A. Heras sits down with Sasha Ghosh-Siminoff to analyze how humanitarian and economic rehabilitation efforts can support peacebuilding in Syria. Sasha is a Nonresident Fellow with the Middle East Center at The New Lines Institute who has a granular and nuanced perspective on Syria that comes from his oversight over targeted civil society capacity building and humanitarian assistance programs throughout Syria. He is also currently the Middle East and North Africa Program Director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and a Security Fellow at the Truman National Security Project. Heras and Ghosh-Siminoff also assess what should be the priorities for international organizations looking to support the rehabilitation of Syria.

After taking office Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed several executive orders addressing domestic policy issues and vowed to place tariffs on goods from China, the EU, Canada, and Mexico. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with foreign ministers from the Quad countries, and Trump threatened Russia with further sanctions if it refused to negotiate over Ukraine. In the Middle East, prisoner exchanges continued between Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces, and the U.S. denied Israel’s request to postpone its withdrawal from Lebanon.

The Middle East Center at The New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy is proud to initiate a special new podcast series “Bridging the Gap: Conversations on Israel and Palestine.” This series is led by Rachel Nelson, the Analyst in the Middle East Center, and will provide nuanced, detailed, and on-the-ground perspectives on the situation in Israel and Palestine. In this inaugural episode, Middle East Center co-director Nicholas A. Heras sits down with Rachel Nelson to learn more about her extensive experience in the West Bank and to gain her analysis on the metastasizing conflict there. Heras and Nelson also explore why the tensions between the expanding Israeli settler community and the local Palestinian population in the West Bank could devolve into a larger war that would end the prospects for the Two State Solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.