Last week, in a massive foreign policy shift, President Trump announced plans to lift all sanctions against Syria, which has been decimated by a decade of civil war. The move has the potential to revitalize the Syrian economy, create a safer Middle East and strengthen U.S. relationships in the region.

But that will only happen if the U.S. takes a strategic, well-thought-out policy approach. That means learning from a record of failure in Syria and throughout the Middle East.

As a former U.S. diplomat who worked in the Middle East, I saw firsthand America’s struggles to comprehend — let alone devise — coherent strategies to pursue its interests in the region.

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the overriding goal for successive administrations became the prevention of another large-scale attack against the homeland. It seemed the only choice before policymakers was strictly a binary one: stability or chaos. So they overprioritized counterterrorism operations and deprioritized geostrategic opportunities. Officials also hoped that the region would transition away from authoritarianism, but were scared of the revolutionary forces that would be needed to make such a change.

These conflicting instincts led to policy incoherence during the Obama administration. For example, officials told Egypt’s then-President Hosni Mubarak to step down and militarily ousted Libya’s then-leader Muammar Qaddafi while shying away from directly intervening against Bashar al-Assad.

© The Hill