All Policy Analysis by Anna Borshchevskaya

A senior NATO official joins U.S. and regional experts to discuss how the Trump administration’s initial peacemaking forays might affect the war’s broader geopolitical stakes, from great power competition in the Middle East to rare-earth minerals and Western counter-messaging.

With preparatory peace talks in full swing and the war set to enter its fourth year, Washington must take a pragmatic approach to enlisting Arab help and ensuring that the outcome does not empower Moscow and Iran.

With strategic Western support on grain deliveries, embassy staffing, counter-messaging, and other initiatives, Ukraine can contribute much to rolling back Moscow’s malign influence in the region.

A negotiated settlement is inevitable, but if Putin goes into those talks with all the leverage, the outcome will only lay the foundation for even deadlier conflicts in the future.

Moscow’s position has weakened, but not for long, raising the need for quick U.S. action on sanctions, investments, and broader economic assistance.

In this episode of the Institute’s Syria Breakdown series, Russia analyst Anna Borshchevskaya explains why Russia's long military intervention in Syria failed to protect the regime of its local ally, Bashar al-Assad, from collapse in the face of a stunning rebel advance.

Moscow is already taking steps to ensure that it can continue confounding U.S. interests in Ukraine and Syria even if the outcomes on these fronts wind up differently than expected.

To prevent Russia from cutting permanent deals with the rebels or otherwise salvaging its defeat, Washington must take the reins of the coming transition process.

The West should move quickly to exploit Moscow's long series of bad strategic moves.

The director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force joins three Washington Institute experts to discuss the stunning rebel advances in the west.

Despite Russia’s uncertain response to the Assad regime’s latest embarrassing military setback, Moscow still sees Syria as a critical hotspot on the global stage and will seek to steer events there in its favor.

From facilitating a no-fly zone over Ukraine to interdicting Iranian missile transfers, Washington and its allies have various means of answering the latest strategic shift in the war.

Moscow’s space cooperation with Tunisia could complicate U.S. attempts to develop norms for space travel, communication, and exploration.

From rumored Houthi missile upgrades to Libyan arms deliveries by the ton, Moscow is doing all it can to empower hostile forces and undermine stability in the Middle East.

The U.S. ambassador to Tunisia joins three Washington Institute experts to discuss the evolution of great power competition in North Africa.

Key Middle East actors tend to distrust the U.S. narrative about the war and conclude they can reap better economic benefits from Russia, so Washington should do more to get them off the sidelines.

The alliance has already been shifting toward greater engagement with the Middle East and Africa, but various maritime and infrastructure threats require more urgent attention, as does the broader problem of countering Moscow’s narrative.

Washington can demonstrate its decisive edge in areas like climate change remediation and economic development, while highlighting the many dangers posed by partnership with Russia and China.

The Kremlin’s legacy of ties to Hezbollah, the Taliban, and other terrorist actors should disabuse Washington of any hope for common cause.

New regional and international factors are creating conditions conducive to ending their decades-long conflict, with potentially important consequences for Iran, the Ukraine war, and Turkey.