Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
Syria's messy war is becoming even messier. On Tuesday, pro-regime militias reportedly moved into the embattled enclave of Afrin, which is under siege from Turkish forces who invaded Syria last month. The regime units appeared to be reinforcing Syrian Kurdish factions that have controlled the area near the Turkish border, much to the frustration of Ankara.
"Hell on earth" is how U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the scenes in Syria's eastern Ghouta region this week. More than 400 people have been killed and 500 others injured — mostly civilians — as a recent rise in bombings on the area continues.
Although ISIS has been largely defeated in Syria, the seven year war in the country continues. It may even be getting chaotic, complicated, and violent. Last week the Syrian government forces bombarded the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, killing an estimated 200 people in just a few days. Meanwhile, American-supported Kurds...
When the Syrian conflict began, in March 2011, Bashar al-Assad seemed likely to be ousted, like other strongmen swept away by the Arab Spring. Eight years later, Assad is still president, but of a fractured, demolished country. Now one big question is: Who will pay to rebuild Syria? The bill is large. The United Nations estimates...
This week marks ten years since Syria has been mired in a civil war that has displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands of civilians dead.
Facing a growing list of attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Charles "C.Q." Brown was pressed at a recent conference on why the American military wasn't responding more aggressively. Two decades of war in the region, a war that much of the American public is eager to...
The killing of a top Hamas official in Beirut and a shock explosion that killed dozens of mourners of a top Iranian general are challenging efforts to contain fighting on multiple fronts in the Middle East from exploding into a larger war. It’s not yet clear what connection, if any, there is between the suspected Israeli assassination against...
One day after the U.S. and U.K. launched retaliatory strikes against Houthi militant locations in Yemen, President Biden said the U.S. is prepared to take action again if the Iran-backed rebels continue to attack ships in the Red Sea. “We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis if they continue with this outrageous behavior along wit...
Houthi militants in Yemen fired a ballistic missile on Friday toward a U.S. warship patrolling the Gulf of Aden, according to U.S. Central Command. There were no reported injuries or damage to the ship. The attack comes one day after the U.S. and U.K. announced that they’re jointly imposing sanctions on four Houthi military officials, in an effort to deter the Iran-backed militant group from...
Roughly ten years ago, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, swept across Mesopotamia. At its peak, it controlled large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory, equivalent in size to Great Britain, subjecting more than 10 million people to its brutal governance. Although the “caliphate” lost its ...