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 and Iraq announced yesterday the formation of a new business council. Syria’s Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade said the council aims to improve relations between the two states and their private sectors in the trade, investment, industry, agriculture and...
The Biden administration is on the verge of a significant breakthrough in Middle East relations as it quietly pursues an agreement between Israel and Lebanon on territorial maritime borders. The negotiations appear to be closing in on the finish line amid intensive...
The Ukraine war's reverberations into the Middle East and North Africa could serve as the catalyst for the next significant wave of uprisings among fragile MENA states.
Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, and Mona Yacoubian, senior advisor at the US Institute of Peace (USIP), spar over the points of convergence and divergence regarding Russia’s malign actions in Syria and Ukraine with host Carol Castiel.
For those shocked by images of Ukrainian civilians targeted by Russian air strikes, I have one word for you: Syria. Moscow’s indiscriminate bombing campaign in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal war against his own people — including attacks on hospitals, schools, residential neighborhoods and markets — killed thousands of civilians. Its year-long military offensive in the rebel-held province of Idlib in 2019 was particularly savage, forcing as many as 1.4 million people from their homes...
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Mona Yacoubian of the U.S. Institute of Peace about the role Russia's military played in Syria and what she thinks the legacy of that conflict is today.
A grass-roots coalition of Syrian families and advocacy groups has been lobbying United Nations member states and Secretary-General António Guterres to create an international system to help families across Syria learn the status of their missing relatives who have been arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared or...
In an interview with EER, senior advisor at the US Institute of Peace Mona Yacoubian talks about the various drivers of terrorism and discusses constructive ways to address the phenomenon. She says the fragility of states provide an enabling environment for terrorists to operate and underscores the various ways that...
Diplomats from many Arab nations are meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the first time since the country’s civil war began in 2011, when most of them severed ties. The visits follow the devastating earthquakes that hit the region. But is that the reason for a thaw in relations? The World's...
After a decade of warfare, the conflict in Syria has settled into a violent, protracted stalemate. Now, as before, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad continues to act with impunity. He has forcibly disappeared tens of thousands of Syrians and subjected thousands more to torture, sexual violence, or death in detention. The country is in a full-blown humanitarian crisis: an estimated 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line, and 60 percent are food insecure—the highest proportion since the start of the conflict, according to the United Nations...