Kurds
Reports on Kurds See all →
Opinion: The lost cause of Iraq and Syria, symbols of the West’s defeat
After over a decade of Western involvement in Syria and Iraq, the region remains unstable and vulnerable to Iranian interference. In Syria, the Kurdish conflict seems set to endure now that the U.S. military has been largely withdrawn from the area. Iraq is facing a wide-scale insurgency against its ruling class and, in the aftermath of the Soleimani assassination, the U.S. is unlikely to be able to play a role in eventual foreign-led negotiations.
GIS Dossier: Islamic State
For the better part of a decade, Islamic State was enemy number one for the United States, its allies and other countries across the Middle East. While establishing a quasi-state across a huge section of Iraq and Syria, the group also conducted terrorist attacks all around the world. Though it ...
Opinion: Respecting Turkey’s position
The opposition victory in Istanbul’s mayoral election was seen widely as a defeat for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose illiberal, centralized system is much criticized in the West. Yet Mr. Erdogan’s detractors underestimate the challenge of adapting to Turkey’s changing geopolitical circumstances, where the Kemalist principles of secularism and ...
2019 Global Outlook: The Fertile Crescent
The single most important development in the Middle East has been the end of Syria’s civil war, which was unequivocally won by the Baath regime. Even the hammer blows of a determined religious opposition could not destroy the post-World War I system that created Syria, Iraq and Jordan as Arab ...
Withdrawal from Syria: George Washington’s warning revisited
President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria was neither a bolt from the blue nor a departure from his predecessor’s strategy. Even so, the announcement allowed a new and perhaps more stable configuration to emerge in the Middle East. While the short-term winner appears to be Vladimir Putin’s ...
