Over the course of Syria’s 13-year old civil conflict, President Bashar al-Assad has resorted to torture, mass slaughter, and chemical attacks on his own people. Some 500,000 Syrians have been killed and 18 million are homeless out of a prewar population of 21 million. Even so, Assad was recently welcomed back into the Arab League, per the national interests of his Arab neighbors. What will this development mean for Syrians and for the region–and how should the US respond? Join us for a lecture and interactive discussion on this critical geopolitical issue.

About the facilitator: David Cheney is an international economics writer, instructor, and trainer for international and educational institutions. He has held a variety of positions at the International Monetary Fund and has provided communications and writing support for a number of multilateral institutions including the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. David has served as an adjunct professor of Global Economics and Writing at NYU and currently runs two foreign affairs discussion groups at the Manhattan JCC and Scarsdale Adult School.