Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the nation has become a battleground for competing hegemons. The United States, Turkey, Russia, and Iran have all attempted to exert influence over a fragmenting Syria. This has led to unlikely alliances, such as the joint US-Russian campaign against ISIS in Syria or American backing for the anti-imperialist Kurdish forces in the North, which was partly withdrawn under the Donald Trump administration.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Helen Thompson, a scholar of global politics, energy, and history at the University of Cambridge spoke to Jacobin about the great-power politics within the Middle East following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Seen from the longue durée, it is clear that American power within the region is waning. But the collapse of Hezbollah, Turkey’s willingness to project power across the region, and Israel’s sensing of Iran’s weakness is likely to increase, rather than reduce, tensions across the region in 2025.