By International Crisis Group What’s new? Alongside the thousands of foreign fighters detained in north east Syria are thousands of non-Syrian children and women. Western governments have for months publicly wrestled with political and policy qualms about repatriating their nationals.… Continue Reading
By Alessandro Regio President Donald Trump announced last Sunday morning that with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death and the United States’ withdrawal from Northern Syria, the terror organization had been completely eradicated. ISIS’s threat capacities, even as destroyed as… Continue Reading
By Paul R. Pillar Confusion has prevailed regarding the purposes of the U.S. troop presence in Syria, and whether the declared purposes are the actual ones. Originally the expedition was widely understood to be all about combating the Islamic State… Continue Reading
by Joe Macaron US officials appear to be overselling a potential deal with Turkey on establishing a “safe zone” in northeastern Syria, one they hope could peel Ankara away from Moscow. However, this approach might accelerate the confrontation between Turkish… Continue Reading
by Laura Gottesdiener There’s a dark joke going around Baghdad these days. Noof Assi, a 30-year-old Iraqi peace activist and humanitarian worker, told it to me by phone. Our conversation takes place in late May just after the Trump administration… Continue Reading