سوریه

The Douma chemical attacks are only the latest chapter in a long story of ethnic and sectarian conflict, international connivance, and above all civilian suffering.

By moving to an airpower-focused approach, Washington could avoid an unending stabilization mission, calm tensions with Turkey, and help allies with the bigger goal of countering Iran and Russia.

An image of imperial greatness is a matter of political survival to Vladimir Putin, which helps explain his aggressive efforts to fill any vacuum America may leave in the region.

Military action should seek to restore deterrence by hitting not just chemical weapons-related targets, but also ground and air units that are key to the Assad regime's war effort.

When Pyongyang was able to cooperate freely with Middle Eastern regimes in the past, it built a clandestine nuclear reactor in Syria, so Washington cannot afford to turn a blind eye to such activity again.

Ankara is a difficult friend, but that doesn't mean the United States should cut it loose.

Washington and its partners can expect Putin to pursue an increasingly aggressive regional policy that depends on confrontation with the West as the basis for domestic legitimacy.

On July 15, 2016, Turkey survived a harsh test to its democracy when it pacified a coup attempt led by the ultrasecretive Gulenist movement. But the episode raised more questions than it resolved. Looking back, how had the Gulenists infiltrated the highest military ranks, thereby allowing the uprising to go

While Assad may nominally hold reclaimed areas in the south, he will never truly control them so long as Tehran tells its militia proxies to secure that corridor for its own purposes.