About the event

This event will delve into the political economy of security sector governance in post-Assad Syria, presenting key findings from a recent paper by Abdulla Ibrahim, whose research sheds light on the evolving structures, networks, and power dynamics shaping Syria’s fragmented security landscape from its independence until 2024. Rather than a traditional seminar, the session will take the form of a conversation between Abdulla and Yezid Saigh of the Carnegie Middle East Center, both leading experts on Syrian political and security affairs; and moderated by Eliza Urwin, the research director of the CCDP. The event will be hybrid, with possible in-person and virtual participation. 

about the speakers

Dr. Ibrahim is a Senior Researcher with the CCDP and Senior Advisor and lead to the Future of Arms Control Project at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP), at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Abdulla is researching international conflicts with over twelve years of expertise in multilateral dialogues and research processes. He is also a Nonresident Fellow with the Stimson Center, and an adjunct fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC. Abdulla’s research interests at the CCDP span topics ranging from arms control to European security, armed groups and armed forces consolidation, U.S. and Russian foreign policies and relations, to the current and future challenges to international order. Abdulla holds a PhD in international relations and political science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva (IHEID); and an MA from the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame. 

Yezid Sayigh is a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where he works on the comparative political and economic roles of Arab armed forces, the impact of war on states and societies, and the politics of authoritarian resurgence. Previously, Sayigh held teaching and research positions at King’s College London, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford, and headed the Middle East program of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Sayigh was also an adviser, negotiator, and policy planner in the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks with Israel 1991-2002 and advised on Palestinian public institutional reform until 2006.