Contributor(s): Raya Jalabi | This talk delivered by Raya Jalabi, Middle East correspondent for the Financial Times, as part of the annual Ian Black Memorial Lecture Series, will examine Syria’s fraught first year in the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad’s fall.

In Damascus, the streets hum with the prospect of returning commerce and a flurry of international diplomacy. Yet beyond the capital’s reach, scars of conflict still linger: villages emptied by displacement, communities unsettled by cycles of revenge and the scourge of poverty in a country where trauma, fear and hope for a new future are frenetically enmeshed.

At its centre is Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former rebel commander who has recast himself as the country’s new powerbroker. His efforts to steady a nation scarred by fourteen years of conflict have been defined by competing pressures: restive minorities demanding greater autonomy, the persistence of revenge killings and social upheaval, and the delicate task of reintroducing Syria to the international stage. This lecture will look at how Sharaa has navigated these crosscurrents in his first year, consolidating authority while attempting to stabilise the country and stave off fragmentation — and consider whether his grip on power can hold.