All Policy Analysis by Andrew J. Tabler

Moscow’s willingness to approve another UN extension has more to do with advancing normalization between Turkey and the Assad regime than helping Syrian civilians, who will remain hostage to Russian demands if nothing is done before the next vote this summer.

Washington can help alleviate the country's fuel crisis, but only if Damascus and Moscow agree to extend the cross-border aid mechanism and resume progress toward a final political settlement.

Seven experts examine how the fraught decision to start production might affect Beirut’s negotiating stance, Hezbollah’s military calculus, U.S.-Israel relations, and other factors.

Moscow and Tehran may well assent to another cross-border operation, but Turkey’s choice of targets will depend on multiple U.S., Russian, and Iranian interests.

Although alternatives to the UN mechanism carry uncertainties of their own, continuing the broken status quo will only boost Moscow, endanger Syrian civilians, and help the Assad regime avoid sanctions—not to mention whetting his appetite for natural gas shipments.

The UN aid mechanism is alive for another six months, but the threat of famine, Russian vetoes, and military escalation will persist unless Washington takes appropriate steps before the next round of renewal negotiations.

Instead of quietly greenlighting the Assad regime’s diplomatic rehabilitation, U.S. officials should escalate economic pressure on its Iranian enablers to regain leverage at the negotiating table.

Residents of the beleaguered country desperately need electricity, but a U.S.-Arab scheme carries complications that could benefit Syria's Assad regime.

The head of the council joins two Washington Institute experts for a far-ranging conversation on the U.S. role in the northeast, Kurdish threat perceptions, the effect of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and more.

Washington needs a special envoy to develop a coherent, intelligence-supported political strategy aimed at isolating Assad, limiting his facilitators, and enabling humanitarian NGOs.

Moscow has repeatedly played actors off each other to secure its own interests and keep the Assad regime in power.

THE ISLAMIC STATE is now largely defeated militarily, with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces taking the eastern bank of the Euphrates River and a mosaic of largely Iran- and Russia-supported Assad-regime forces taking areas west of the river. As anti-IS operations wind down and the Trump administration considers its options

"Atlantic" editors Matt Thompson and Kathy Gilsinan ask Syria expert Andrew Tabler to explain how the conflict has worn on for years and what the path forward might be.

With President Trump’s strikes on Assad’s regime, the Syrian civil war is at the forefront of the global political stage. But what happens when the strikes are over?

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.

Continuing to enforce the ban on such weapons via military action can give Washington some much needed leverage in the Geneva negotiations.