In The News

The Secret Eye Inside Mosul

Robin Wright November 2, 2016
The coalition fighting the Islamic State has reached the outskirts of Mosul, an Iraqi city seized in 2014. A clandestine blog, Mosul Eye, has documented life in Mosul under the terrorist group in terse lists and describes a city in ruins. Scholars suggest that the blog is written by someone in Mosul, providing details that could helpful coalition forces. ISIS has sent messages to the account,...

Old Enemies Elect Aoun as Lebanon's President

Tom Perry and Laila Bassam October 31, 2016
A 29-month standoff ended after the Lebanese parliament elected former army commander Michel Aoun as president. He is a Maronite Christian with ties to Hezbollah. As part of the deal, Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri, will serve as prime minister – he is son of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri who was assassinated in 2005, a death blamed on Hezbollah and Syria. “Hariri's decision to endorse...

Is a Better World Possible Without US Military Force?

Shadi Hamid October 24, 2016
Under President Obama, the United States adopted a “do no harm” foreign policy in contrast to Bush-era military interventionism. Shadi Hamid in The Atlantic describes this as a Leftist tendency to avoid intervention, allowing other countries to exercise agency without American interference. He argues the policy has not led to a safer and more just world. For instance, Obama has maintained a non-...

Battle for Mosul: Why Troops Reaching ISIS Stronghold Is a Delicate Balance

Matt Bradley October 21, 2016
The Islamic State took control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in summer of 2014. Coalition forces have surrounded the city and include Kurds, Iraqis, Turks, advisers from the United States and elsewhere, as well as many militias of varying ethnicities. Multiple challenges are in store: “The Kurdish Peshmerga are only one piece of a complex patchwork of religious and ethnic identities that...

Yemen Isn’t Just a Proxy War Between Saudi Arabia and Iran

Laura Kasinof October 18, 2016
The United Nations announced a 72-hour ceasefire for the war in Yemen. The pause, just after the US Navy fired missiles into Yemen in response to attacks on US ships in the Red Sea, may prevent expansion of the war that has killed more than 10,000 and displaced more than 3 million Yemenis. Yemen’s war and politics are complex, explains Laura Kasinof for Slate. Communist South Yemen and North...

Warming Russia-Turkey Relations Send a Chill Through Ukraine

Fred Weir October 18, 2016
Despite rising tensions among Russia, Turkey and the West over civil war in Syria, agreements are emerging over sending natural gas from Russia to Europe. Proposed development of two new pipelines would allow Russia to pass Ukraine in sending gas to the rest of Europe, reports Fred Weir for the Christian Science Monitor: “With TurkStream, Turkey will stand to become the chief distributor for...

Battle for Aleppo: How Syria Became the New Global War

Riham Alkousaa, Benjamin Bidder, Christian Neef, Maximilian Popp, Gordon Repinski, Christoph Reuter, Mathieu von Rohr, Samiha Shafy and Holger Stark October 12, 2016
Foreign fighters have converged on Syria, especially Aleppo, and reporters describe the many languages and goals on the war’s frontlines for Spiegel: “Aleppo, the destroyed, divided city, has become a symbol for the horrors of the air war that the Syrian regime and its allies are waging against the Sunni rebels, as well as a symbol for the impotence of the West.” Russia backs the authoritarian...