Making Sausage Out of Syria Policy

by Gary Sick Foreign policy, to paraphrase Bismarck, is like sausage: you’d rather not see it being made. In fact, even when the final results are not particularly appetizing, the foreign policy process gains nothing by being carried out in… Continue Reading

Media Worried US Won’t Occupy Syria Forever

by Gregory Shupak In December, President Donald Trump said that he planned to withdraw the US troops from Syria, which number between 2,000 and 4,000. Trump’s claim was widely condemned in corporate media, demonstrating the commentariat’s shared belief in American… Continue Reading

Syria Policy: The Hawks’ Talons Sink Deeper into Trump

by Paul R. Pillar Amid the chaos that is the making of foreign policy in the Trump White House, one can only guess about any conversations between the president and National Security Advisor John Bolton since the president’s pre-holiday tweeted… Continue Reading

U.S. Syria Policy Is a Strategic Failure

by Daniel Brumberg U.S. policy toward Syria pivots around vague and potentially incompatible goals that are not linked to adequate means. The White House wants to insure the permanent destruction of the Islamic State (ISIS or IS), expel Iranian and… Continue Reading

Ahwaz Attacks: Is Saudi Arabia Taking the War Inside Iran?

by Shireen T. Hunter  Less than a month after Iran’s consulate in Basra was attacked, a group of terrorists claiming to be members of the Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz attacked a military parade in the capital of Iran’s… Continue Reading