Frontline Club - A conversation with Rime Allaf on Syria's next chapter

March 18, 2026

Rime Allaf started writing her book about the history of Syria and its long revolution before the fall of Bashar Al Assad at the end of 2024. The book, It Started in Damascus, traces Syria’s long struggle for freedom through both political history and lived experience - ending with the sudden collapse of the decades-long regime. As Allaf writes, “While the end felt quick indeed, it did not take ten days to bring Assad down: it took five thousand.”

In this conversation at the Frontline Club, Allaf will consider how revolution, regional power plays, and Western miscalculation shaped Syria’s fate - and what its fragile future reveals about global politics today. Rime Allaf will be in conversation with New Lines Magazine’s Faisal Al Yafai Also on the panel NBC international correspondent Hala Gorani