Lawfare Daily: The State of Syria, with Charles Lister
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For today’s episode, Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sits down with Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and head of its Syria Initiative, to talk about the dramatic developments that have taken place in Syria the past few weeks, which have ultimately led to the impending withdrawal of U.S. troops after more than a decade in country.
Together, they discuss the challenges Syria has faced since the fall of the Assad regime, how the new transitional government in Damascus has managed its relationship with the Syrian Democratic Forces, what the exit of U.S. troops means for efforts to combat the Islamic State terrorist group, and the role the United States has played in it all—and is likely to play moving forward.
To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Electronic Communications Privacy Act turns 40 this year, and it's showing its age. |
| 0:06.0 | On Friday, March 6th, Lawfare and Georgetown Law are bringing together leading scholars, |
| 0:11.1 | practitioners, and former government officials for installing updates to ECPA, a half-day event |
| 0:16.6 | on what's broken with the statute and how to fix it. The event is free and open to the public, |
| 0:21.4 | in person and online. Visit lawfaremedia.org slash ECPA event. That's lawfaremedia.org |
| 0:28.2 | slash ECPA event for details and to register. |
| 0:35.0 | The moment conflict moved into SDF core areas, the Arab tribes flipped in 12 hours and almost |
| 0:41.8 | overnight, 75 to 80% of the SDF territory had flipped to government control almost without a bullet |
| 0:48.1 | being fired. And that was kind of the death knell in terms of the SDF being able to maintain itself as a significant actor |
| 0:55.8 | on the stage. And it basically forced them into the integration agreement we see today. |
| 1:00.7 | It's the Lawfare podcast. I'm Scott R. Anderson here with Charles Lister, senior fellow at the |
| 1:05.6 | Middle East Institute. Does it make sense for American military bases to still be in SDF-controlled northeastern Syria? |
| 1:13.6 | Not very much. |
| 1:14.6 | Does it make sense, however, that the US military and the intelligence community |
| 1:20.6 | seek to invest in a more government-to-government relationship through Damascus |
| 1:25.6 | to explore continuing to pursue shared you know, shared interests. |
| 1:29.5 | Yes, and that's what we're seeing. |
| 1:31.8 | Today, we're talking about the end of the U.S. military presence in Syria and what it says about |
| 1:36.4 | the state of the country. |
| 1:38.6 | So, Charles, I think it's fair to say Syria has been through what might be the most dramatic 15 months that I can imagine |
| 1:48.0 | in terms of a country's transformation. We went from the collapse of the Assad regime, which had, |
| 1:55.6 | you know, overseen, instigated, participated in a brutal civil war, brutal campaigns suppression in the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Lawfare Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Lawfare Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.