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.
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...
President Trump addressed the Defeat ISIS coalition at the State Department on Wednesday, reassuring them the U.S. remains committed to the fight despite his decision to withdraw troops from Syria.
Hawks in the Republican Party are fuming over President Trump's abrupt decision to pull some U.S. troops from Syria, a move they say he made without consulting him. And the White House and Pentagon are offering sparse details on how such a withdrawal will work, with the White House and the Pentagon referring questions to each other Wednesday in the wake of the announcement. "It's a catastrophic disaster," one senior administration official told CBS News "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan of the fallout from the president's decision, saying the national security...
The U.S. plans to withdraw all of its troops from Syria, a senior Pentagon official tells NPR. About 2,000 U.S. troops are currently in the northeastern part of the country, near the Turkish border. The decision to remove all troops from Syria was made by the White House late last week and sent to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, the official says. The Joint Chiefs of Staff held a meeting on Monday about the issue, and officials at U.S. Central Command will work on a timetable for the withdrawal. Officials are considering also reducing troops in Afghanistan. A State Department...
The next round of Syria peace talks are scheduled to begin Friday, even as the international community braces for a potential bloodbath in Idlib province, the country’s last rebel stronghold. The United Nations said a major offensive by the Syrian regime and its allies in the northwestern province could be the “worst humanitarian disaster” of the 21st century, putting at risk more than 3 million people in Idlib and the surrounding areas...
In the fall of 2016, Syrian troops loyal to Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russian airstrikes and Iran-backed militias, marched on Aleppo and ultimately captured the city of 200,000 people, leaving a trail of destruction and human suffering. In February of this year, they besieged Eastern Ghouta...
In an era of global disorder—propelled by the intertwined dynamics of globalization and proliferating technology—the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) stand out as perhaps the most chaotic region. A proverbial “canary in the coal mine,” the MENA region’s numerous conflicts and endemic instability...
Israel has long been wary of Iran’s power projection in the Levant, particularly in Syria. Ties between Tehran and Damascus have been close since the 1979 revolution, but the relationship deepened after...
The Trump administration made clear that attacks against Syria's chemical weapons program had one purpose: to deter Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from using such weapons again in future as he had done, the United States and others said, recently in the city of Douma. Friday night's strike came one year after the US hit the Assad regime in similar fashion after Damascus had allegedly carried out...
U.S. troops will still be in Syria at the end of 2018, despite President Donald Trump’s order to withdraw within six months. While a recent White House statement noted that the mission to counter the Islamic State was coming to a “rapid end,” Syria’s messy reality—evidenced by the chemical attack in Douma last weekend and pressure for...