How Can Civil Society Build a Better Syria?

New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy

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 Nidal Betare to assess the potential for a Syrian-led, inclusive process of democracy-building in post-Assad Syria. Betare is a Palestinian-American who was born and raised in Syria, and a well-known expert on civil society and the Syrian political opposition. They engage on a wide-ranging discussion on how Syrian civil society can lead its country to engage in a process of reconciliation across Syria’s diverse communities after a decade and a half of war, and a half-century of the rule of a brutal authoritarian regime. Betare and Heras also tackle the subject of what the vibrant and active Syrian-American community can do to help rebuild the country and make it more prosperous than ever before.