دمکراسی و اصلاح

The deep problems within the transitional government’s security ranks have once again been tragically exposed, so the Trump administration should increase pressure on the foreign fighter issue and related matters—for the sake of Syria’s minorities and U.S. regional interests alike.

After giving Lebanese officials a much-needed ultimatum for disarming Hezbollah and implementing financial reforms, Washington is now in danger of letting them once again punt these all-important tasks.

The Trump administration’s budget cuts, intended to make America “safer, stronger, and more prosperous,” could wind up harming U.S. interests in the region while strengthening Russian and Chinese media warfare.

The best way to bolster the Trump administration’s new “Quad” initiative is by combining it with a previous Saudi-American platform that already has significant buy-in from the warring parties.

Although the crisis has not yet checked all the boxes that would signal fatal regime vulnerability, the situation could change quickly due to shifting conditions on the battlefield, on the streets, or within the halls of power in Tehran.

An in-depth study of how the Islamic State’s administrative apparatus and activities in its Syrian “capital” affected local residents, and how it sought to instrumentalize the populace in a quest to sustain its wider international state-building project for the long term.

Watch or read an in-depth conversation with three experts who have spent weeks on the ground in Syria and met with the interim authorities who toppled the Assad regime.

Although President Abbas seems more focused on meeting diplomatic expectations abroad than dealing with burning issues at home, officials should still push him to propose something beyond cosmetic change—both to address the reality in the West Bank and, perhaps, to legitimize the PA’s eventual return to Gaza.

As nuclear talks proceed, the president should recall his past acknowledgement that respect for human rights and democracy is “an integral component of U.S. national security.”