Beginning in 2011, the conflict in Syria provided jihadist militants with potentially unprecedented opportunities. While ISIS exploited instability to rapidly pursue its agenda through the use of horrendous brutality, Al-Qaeda embraced a different, more patient strategy. By emphasizing the local nature of its goals, Al-Qaeda sought to embed itself irreversibly within the Syrian revolutionary fabric, seeking to become a popular socio-political movement bound ultimately into a marriage of nationalism and Islamic extremism. For some time, this "pragmatic" long-game design proved remarkably successful, but with time and changing geopolitical landscapes, Al-Qaeda increasingly struggled to control its affiliate in Syria. Faced with new realities, Al-Qaeda has pivoted back to its traditional globalist mindset, but it leaves behind a sizable but internally-conflicted former affiliate and many lessons learned - for both jihadists and policymakers in the West. Charles Lister is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Counter-Terrorism and Extremism Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. Prior to joining MEI, Lister was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Qatar and a Senior Consultant to the multinationally-backed Syria Track II Dialogue Initiative. This event costs $25 and includes lunch.