This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests.
Muhannad al-Rish is a researcher and analyst specializing in security and humanitarian response in Syria, with a particular focus on the southern regions of Damascus, Daraa, and Suweida. He also serves as a Senior Research Liaison Officer at the Center for Operational Analysis and Research (COAR) and is pursuing a degree in Development Studies at Philadelphia University.
The following is a short abstract, offering the main analytical findings and policy takeaways from a newly released Middle East Institute report on post-war reconstruction in Syria.
Since the end of the civil war in Syria, government officials have inaugurated high-end tourist projects and upscale urban housing schemes, while at the same time preventing Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons from returning to their ruined neighborhoods or rebuilding their demolished homes. The focus on luxury housing in a country devastated by conflict and within a city suffering from massive destruction and housing shortages encapsulates the contradictions of the regime’s policy for reconstruction and early recovery not only in Damascus but in the whole country.
