Fact-Finding Mission To Syria

In January, ten members of NIMEP (including a PhD candidate at the Tufts University Fletcher School) spent two weeks in the Arab Republic of Syria conducting NIMEP's annual fact-finding mission. Throughout the months leading up to the trip, the group put in a lot of effort into preparations; aside from being responsible for the logistics of the trip, ranging from finding the cheapest airfare to setting up interviews, every member of the team was responsible for extensive reading on the history of Syria and was expected to complete a twenty page literature review in order to ensure that they had the necessary background knowledge to conduct meaningful research. While in Syria, the group met with more than a dozen important individuals, ranging from journalists to artists to government ministers. Some of the more high-profile meetings included those with Todd Holmstrom (US Attache to Syria), Patriarch Mor Ignatious Zakka I Iwas (Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church), Ahmad Hassoun (The Grand Mufti of Syria), Faisal Mekdad (Deputy Foreign Minister of Syria), and Buthaina Shabaan (Minister of Expatriates). The group also had a highly controversial meeting with Khaled Meshaal, the head of the political bureau of Hamas, currently in exile in Damascus. The group also had a guided tour of the Golan Heights with UN Peacekeeper Major Stephen Eder in the UNDOF zone. Upon returning, every member of the group wrote a research paper on their individual topics from the research trip. Many of these will be published in the Fall 2008 edition of the Insights journal. Possibilities for upcoming trips include Israel and the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, North Africa, and the Gulf States.