Syria

Since becoming president in 2000, Vladimir Putin has reinvigorated Russia's Middle East ties, a trend underscored by his bold military intervention in the Syria crisis. Through these and other regional moves, he has sought to gain ground at the West's expense while bolstering the Kremlin's legitimacy against domestic pressures --

Beyond wishful thinking, the current choices for Syria seem limited to either continuing a give-and-take war or having Assad rule Syria much as Saddam ruled Iraq in the 1990s -- under international isolation and with an iron fist.

The main lesson imparted by the Arab Spring at the five year mark is that toppling dictators does not clear a straight path to democracy. Without establishing strong and inclusive institutions to make democratization sustainable following regime change, civil wars have broken out in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen, while

Can the Islamic State be beaten in the banks as well as on the battlefield? Watch three Institute experts discuss government and private-sector efforts to cut off its funding.

Analysis of funeral reports and other open-source data offers potentially revealing insights into the militia's combat losses in Syria, its shifting role in the war next door, and the security of its position back home in Lebanon.

Some analysts have voiced disagreement with the view that Damascus and Moscow are truly at odds.

UN Security Council Resolutions 2170, 2249, and 2254 offer ample grounds for establishing a zone to protect refugees and counter the Islamic State, but shaping the international diplomatic response would be paramount given the legal gray areas inherent in such action.

The Kurdish issue in Turkey stands on the precipice of becoming an international problem, involving all sorts of nefarious actors from the Syrian civil war.

Establishment of humanitarian corridors, safe havens, safe zones, or buffer or no-fly zones could turn the tide of Syria's humanitarian crisis, but it could also pose numerous complications and create second- and third-order effects for the region.