Throughout its dynasty, the Assad regime (1970-2024) wielded transnational repression against the diaspora in order to monitor, control, and punish any person or group deemed as disloyal. As an extension of Assad’s ideological and totalitarian rule in Syria, the regime engaged in numerous tactics to silence diaspora members, including direct attacks and threats, surveillance, control over mobility, proxy punishment and coercion, the cooptation of civil society and civic engagement, and digital transnational repression. The 2011 Arab Spring destabilized the regime and gave diaspora members moral and strategic reasons to come out in protest. During the uprising and subsequent humanitarian crisis, transnational repression proved to be a less-effective deterrent against diaspora protest and mobilization owing to the regime’s weakened moral legitimacy and operational capacity to target individuals abroad while under siege at home. At the same time, regime agents and loyalists continued to use transnational repression against Syrians abroad – including against a global network of opposition members and ordinary refugees – until the regime was overthrown in 2024. At the time of this writing, Syrians have been liberated from over five decades of transnational repression that operated through Syrian networks and community ties. While the future of Syria remains uncertain at the time of this writing, subsequent research will do well to track how the new Syrian state reacts to, and attempts to govern, its diaspora.