Category: Blogs

Rules for Reconstruction in Syria

By Steven Heydemann

On August 17, Syrian officials oversaw the opening of the first Damascus International Exhibition since the start of the Syrian uprising. Reflecting the triumphalism now widely on display in Damascus, the exhibition—an international trade fair—has been heavily promoted by the Assad regime, presented as a symbol of its victory over the insurgency that began more […]

The Awkward Space for Syria’s Post-Conflict Reconstruction

By Emma Beals

International political opinion about the future of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has shifted. President Donald Trump’s revocation of any remaining support for the covert CIA ‘Train and Equip’ program, and French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent admission that the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is no longer a key policy objective, demonstrate the faded political […]

Trump’s Afghanistan Strategy Turns Up the Heat on Pakistan

US President Donald J. Trump’s new strategy for Afghanistan effectively puts the onus on Pakistan to end its support for terrorists. If this strategy is to succeed, the United States must “adopt a very serious policy toward Pakistan,” said C. Christine Fair, the provost’s distinguished associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. […]

Amid Factional Conflicts, the Regime Prepares to Reclaim Eastern Ghouta

By Hasan Arfeh

Nothing after May 15, 2017 was as it had been before. It began with the operations to remove opposition fighters and residents from the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, in accordance with the agreement between the Syrian regime’s forces and the factions that oppose it. The neighborhood, which lies northeast of the capital, is considered the […]

What South Sudan’s war means for northern Uganda’s “relative peace”

By Kyra Fox

Ten years after the guns of the three-decade-long Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency went silent, northern Uganda’s local leaders are concerned that the deadly war raging across the South Sudanese border could disturb the fragile region. As Uganda’s poorest region, the north is hardly unused to conflict. Decades of economic and political marginalization dating back […]

Erratic Consistency—Trump’s Uncertain Egypt Strategy

By Dr. H.A. Hellyer

August is usually a quiet month in the DC Beltway. Of course, that has not been the case at all this year, with President Donald Trump’s comments over Charlottesville and the aftermath; the crisis with North Korea; Pakistan and Afghanistan; and yet others. On Tuesday, another issue was thrown into the mix, though far less […]

Trump Misses an Opportunity in Afghanistan

By Shuja Nawaz

US President Donald J. Trump should have stuck to his original line of questioning of his national security team before sharing his new “strategy” on Afghanistan and South Asia: what outcome are we seeking, and how will we get there? Trump’s August 21 speech, in which he outlined his policy on Afghanistan, exemplified the truth […]

The Battle for Raqqa: A War of Tactics and Caution

By Abdullah al-Ghadawi

The base of the Islamic State’s (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) power is in Raqqa and Mosul and is connected with each side deploying fighters across the border in mass. But while the United States and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) took back Mosul, the same cannot be said of Raqqa, which continues to deplete the Syrian […]

Trump’s Commitment to Afghanistan

By Ashish Kumar Sen

US president’s policy will send a clear message to the region, said Atlantic Council’s James B. Cunningham US President Donald J. Trump’s approach to Afghanistan—marked by an indefinite US troop presence—sends a clear signal of the United States’ commitment to ending the war in that country, said James B. Cunningham, a nonresident senior fellow at […]