Andrew J. Tabler is a senior fellow in the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he focuses on Syria and U.S. policy in the Levant. In 2003 he moved to Syria from Washington and cofounded the country's first private-sector English-language magazine, Syria Today.
Andrew J. Tabler has interviewed Syrian first lady Asma al-Asad, Israeli president Shimon Peres, the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, slain Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and former Lebanese prime ministers Fouad Siniora and Saad Hariri. His articles and opinion pieces on Syrian and Lebanese affairs and U.S. foreign policy have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, and Foreign Policy. He has also appeared in interviews with CNN, NBC, PBS, NPR, and the BBC.
A key player in the Middle East and the site of violent protests in 2011, Syria has long been a thorn in Washington's side when it comes to forging peace or rolling back the influence of the Islamic republic of Iran. But only after the events of 9/11 and Damascus's staunch opposition to the war in Iraq did the U.S. government begin an unannounced campaign to pressure President Bashar al-Assad's regime to revamp its regional and domestic policies. The book vividly captures Tabler's behind-the-scenes experiences and provides a firsthand look at 21st-century Syria and Washington's attempts to craft a "New Middle East." Examining the effects of the neoconservatives' strategy and asking what went wrong and how Washington can achieve a new relationship with this pivotal Middle Eastern nation, this investigation provides a rare glimpse into U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
