How Syria’s Future After Assad Echoes With Its Past

The debates in Syria today resonate with the same set of challenges that earlier generations of Syrians faced.

Sep 16, 2026

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A billboard showing Bashar al-Assad and the national flag of Ba’athist Syria torn by anti-government fighters in Aleppo, November 30, 2024. (Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)

By Daniel Neep

Daniel Neep is a senior fellow and the director of publications at the Arab Center Washington DC. His most recent book is Syria: A Modern History, from which this essay is adapted.

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