This lecture was first given to the Royal Society for Asian Affairs on 24 October 2018.



Kamal Alam is a former advisor on Syrian affairs to the British Army. He teaches Syrian history at various Army Staff Colleges, and is currently Fellow for Syrian Affairs at the Institute for Statecraft and at the the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). This talk will look at why and how Russia was successful, how many people, including David Cameron, got this war wrong, and the importance of Damascus as the heart of the Arab world. It will be a mixture of history and views from the ground.