Syria at a Crossroads: Enhancing Inclusiveness in a Highly Centralized Political...
Edinburgh Dialogue 2025 | Policy Brief Series
Author: Zaid Al-Ali
The changing dynamics of peace processes, geo-politics and multilateralism are affecting many conflicts around the world, their prevention or their resolution. While the mediation community has focused on the need for adaptation, there has been less of a focus on the consequences for statebuilding projects, in part because the rise of transactional deal-making focuses on security objectives such as ceasefires. Yet, behind the scenes, constitutional reform processes and statebuilding continue apace, often with the agenda of addressing intrastate conflict.
In December 2025, International IDEA and the University of Edinburgh, as part of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceREP) organised the Twelfth Edinburgh Dialogue on Constitution Building in Fragile Settings on ‘the changing nature of mediation when negotiating political settlements in fragile settings’, bringing together key actors from the fields of peace mediation and constitution building support.
Following the 2025 Edinburgh Dialogue, a series of policy briefs were developed focusing on the evolution and current challenges of the statebuilding project within the context of fragmented conflicts and increasingly transactional approaches to peace mediation and peace building.
This brief sets out the current context in Syria, highlighting the political, demographic and institutional developments shaping the transition and constitutional process. Next, it examines the procedural arrangements for constitutional reform, outlining possible scenarios and considering the roles of civil society, political actors and external influences. Subsequent sections analyse the implications of recent security and governance changes, review the evolving legal framework and presidential prerogatives, and assess future risks and opportunities for inclusive state building.
Read the other policy briefs in this series:
Beyond the Deal? Rethinking Statebuilding Amid Conflict Fragmentation and Transactional Peacemaking (Teresa Whitfield)
Myanmar’s Fragmented Future: Evolving Governance and Conflict Dynamics Five Years after the 2021 Coup (Gun Mai Sumlut and Kimana Zulueta-Fülscher)