Defense and Security, Terrorism, US Policy in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Turkey
Press inquiries: [email protected]
Charles Lister is a senior fellow and the director of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute (MEI), where he focuses on Syria, terrorism, and insurgency across the Levant. His work also covers broader regional security dynamics and the evolution of jihadist movements, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS). Mr. Lister is concurrently a Senior Consultant to the Karam Shaar Advisory; the Founder of Syria Weekly; and a consultant to the United Nations’ International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) for Syria. Mr. Lister also serves as an expert witness and advisor on counterterrorism for US, European, and Australian law enforcement and judicial bodies.
At MEI, Mr. Lister leads two major international initiatives. The Resolving the Detainee Crisis project, a joint effort with the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR), brings together governments and NGOs to address the challenges of detaining thousands of terrorist fighters and their families in northeast Syria. Separately, the Syria Strategy Project, in collaboration with the Atlantic Council and the European Institute of Peace, engages over 80 experts and 25 governments and Syrian entities to shape multilateral approaches to resolving Syria’s conflict. In March 2025, the project published a report, “Reimagining Syria: A Roadmap for Peace and Prosperity Beyond Assad.”
Before joining MEI, he was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Doha and a senior consultant to the multinationally backed Syria Track II Dialogue Initiative, where he led years of direct engagement with the leadership of more than 100 Syrian armed opposition groups.
He is the author of The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency (Oxford University Press, 2016), The Islamic State: A Brief Introduction (Brookings Press, 2015), and the editor of Winning the Battle, Losing the War: Addressing the Drivers of Non-State Armed Actors and Extremist Groups (MEI, 2019). His next book, also on Syria, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
He holds a first-class MA (Hons) in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews.
He is fluent in French.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
The Islamic State has regained its momentum, and the Biden administration might inadvertently give it another boost.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
On 7 October, Hamas shocked the world, when thousands of its militants invaded southern Israel, taking control of territory, massacring civilians and kidnapping hundreds.
The attack itself demonstrated an unusual level of complexity, with a first wave seeing drones taking out Israeli reconnaissance equipment and observation posts and cyber attacks creating distractions, opening a path for amassed militant incursions from the air, sea and ground.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Expert regional analysis by MEI scholars and contributors.
Contents:
The SDF has always been a diverse coalition of localized actors. Over the past eight years, it has managed to contain these persistent frictions, but that may now be coming to an end. In the past three days, at least 50 people have been killed in fighting between Arab tribal fighters and the SDF in the region where Syria’s Khabur and Euphrates rivers meet. The catalyst for this fighting occurred late on Aug. 27, when Ahmed al-Khubayl, the leader of the SDF’s Deir ez-Zor Military Council, was lured north to Hasakah for a purported meeting, only to be arrested alongside his brother and four other commanders.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Three months ago, Saudi Arabia kick-started a concerted regional effort to reengage and normalize Syria’s regime within the Middle East and, Riyadh hoped, farther afield. On April 18, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian capital of Damascus. Just one month later, on May 19, the Arab League embraced one of the world’s most notorious war criminals for the first time since 2011.
Northwestern Syria is home to the world’s most acute humanitarian crisis. The prospect of the Assad regime being able to exert all control over what aid goes into the area is unconscionable.
Expert regional analysis by MEI scholars and contributors.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
The U.S. administration is tacitly contributing to growing acceptance and re-normalization of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the 21st century’s most notorious war criminal, putting in jeopardy the continuation of our counter-terrorism mission in Syria. Assad is toasting his survival on the ashes of his victims — but within the small community of optimistic actors in Syria, ISIS is sitting pretty comfortably too.
