Syria was one of the last countries left on Sam Goodwin’s list. He was young and on a mission to join a small group of people alive today who have visited every country in the world.
By 2019, Goodwin had already traveled to 180 countries, including those with hostile regimes in Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela.
“I had always traveled, because it was fun and I enjoyed it, but most importantly, I learned from it,” Goodwin says. “Travel was always the best education I’d ever had.”
With fewer than 20 U.N.-recognized sovereign states left to visit at the time, Goodwin—then 30—arrived in Syria on May 25, 2019. He had been in the country only for a couple hours when, while walking to meet his guide, “this black pickup truck abruptly pulled up next to me, two armed men jumped out of the back seat, and instructed me to get inside,” he said in an…
