‘Syria in Context’ is invaluable for anyone covering Syria professionally.
— Louisa Loveluck, Baghdad Bureau Chief, Washington Post
A top, high-quality source of info and analysis on Syria.
— Emile Hokayem, Senior Fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies
If you cover the Syrian war, you should subscribe to ‘Syria in Context’. And that’s coming from someone who truly hates getting emails.
— Ben Taub, Writer, ‘The New Yorker’
Why subscribe?
It’s hard to keep up with everything that’s happening in and around Syria. It’s even harder to understand how each individual development—diplomatic, humanitarian, security—impacts the situation on the ground and how it shapes the wider trajectory of the conflict. Even avid Syria watchers—be it for journalism, analysis, policy, or out of general interest—can easily be overwhelmed by the deluge of information available or simply consumed by the immediacy of the problem before us.
We keep an eye on the nitty-gritty comings and goings and will deliver short sharp, simple, information to your inbox each week.
WEEK IN REVIEW: Key events and developments in Syria and beyond - and how they relate to one another.
SPOTLIGHTS: Regularly highlighting crucial issues, personalities, laws, and policy developments that we think aren’t getting the attention they deserve.
READING: We’ll highlight a handful of stories we think you should be reading, as well as pointing to both recent and historical reports and analysis.
PROFESSIONAL: Key dates, political developments, events, job listings.
Most sections in our weekly brief will be a couple of hundred words long, explaining what, how, and why it matters. We’ll provide links so you can find out more. As we read through long reports, and hear about key events, we’ll highlight those to you too. And each week we’ll have a spotlight on at least one key person, term, or piece of legislation, so that over time you build up your knowledge of the key information that underpins the news.
Each brief is kept in a password protected website, so you can refer back to it at any time.
Syria in Context will develop and expand to suit the needs and size of the audience. More subscribers will enable us to do more feature research and analysis. Our initial customer research gave us a sense of what we think you want to know, but we’d love to hear from you with ideas about things to cover.
The Editors
Emma Beals is an award-winning investigative journalist and analyst who has been focused on Syria almost-exclusively since 2012. Emma is focused on humanitarian aid and development, siege and “reconciliation”, stabilization and reconstruction, and HLP and refugee returns.
Tobias Schneider is a Research Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin. His work mainly focuses on the political economy of conflict, insurgency, and state fragility in Syria and the contemporary Middle East. He regularly contributes analysis to the Middle East Institute as well as the "Reconstructing Syria" initiative at the Atlantic Council.
Suhail al-Ghazi is a Syrian researcher. He is a senior researcher at Verify-Sy, the first Syrian-led fact-checking and OSINT platform. Suhail has a background in OSINT research, digital research and conflict-research on the Syrian conflict. As an independent researcher, he has also worked as translator, fixer and consultant for journalists covering the Syria conflict, news and research institutions focused on military developments in Syria.
How much does it cost?
$15 a month. This is so Emma and Tobias can cover the cost of the time they spend researching and analyzing the developments in Syria that directly impact the work of policy-makers, humanitarians, diplomats, journalists, analysts, and the daily lives of millions of Syrians. If you are a freelancer, or have other financial reasons why $15 p/m is prohibitive, please get in touch to discuss with us.
What do I get when I subscribe?
Initially, you’ll get at least four briefings per month delivered directly to your inbox. Each week, we’ll look at what’s been happening in Syria, shine a spotlight on particular feature subject, and go into detail on relevant legislation, events, policies, individuals, and take a look at the horizon for what’s to come.
Can I forward the emails?
Individual subscriptions are the sole source of revenue for ‘Syria in Context’ and so we ask that you please refrain from forward subscriber-only content. You may occasionally pass them on to colleagues if there is a particularly relevant article, but please encourage them to sign up themselves.
