WASHINGTON (May 27, 2025)- On Friday, the Trump administration lifted several sanctions on Syria. The New York Times reported that the Treasury Department lifted regulations banning U.S. citizens and companies from making most financial transactions with Syrian citizens and entities and the State Department announced it was suspending for six months other tough sanctions imposed on Syria under the 2019 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.
For more context on the matter, please consider Amy Austin Holmes. Holmes is a research professor of international affairs and program director of the DAO Regional Skill Sustainment Initiative at GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Dr. Holmes is an expert on global American military posture, the NATO alliance, non-state actors, revolutions, military coups, and de-facto states. With more than 15 years of global experience conducting research in the Middle East and Europe, including various conflict zones, she can speak on American foreign policy and international security.
Holmes recently published a new book on Syria, Statelet of Survivors, and has more than a decade experience doing research in Syria and worked at the State Department on Syria, Iraq, and Turkey through a Council on Foreign Relations fellowship that places academics in government. Additionally last October, Harvard did a Q&A with her which can be found here: Survival and Self-Determination in Northeast Syria.
If you wish to speak with Dr. Amy Austin Holmes, please contact Media Relations Specialist Shannon Mitchell at shannon [dot] mitchell
gwu [dot] edu (shannon[dot]mitchell[at]gwu[dot]edu).
-GW-
