Earlier this year, Syria’s deputy prime minister (and Foreign Minister) Walid Muallem paid a three-day visit to New Delhi. While Muallem was the highest-ranking Syrian official to travel to India since President Bashar al-Assad’s visit in 2008, a steady stream of Assad aides have paraded through New Delhi since the Syrian civil war erupted in …

In August 2013, the Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad used nerve gas to murder thousands of civilians including children. In response, Britain’s House of Commons rejected a motion to authorize military intervention, inflicting a rare and historic defeat on the government. President Barack Obama, who had threatened to strike in the event of Assad crossing a …

This is the latest edition of our Five Questions series. Each week, we feature an expert, practitioner, or leader answering five questions on a topic of current relevance in the world of defense, security, and foreign policy. Well, four of the questions are topical. The fifth is about booze. We are War on the Rocks, …

Three years ago, it was hard to find anything significant about Syria in books about al-Qaida. Yet today, Syria is widely – and correctly – seen as the cradle of a resurgent al-Qaida: a magnet for jihadist recruits, which offers the networks, skills and motivation needed to produce a new generation of terrorists. How did …

Negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement between the U.S. and 14 other Pacific Rim nations, are coming to a close this year. TPP has the ability to open up new countries for American companies to manufacture, while helping the U.S. build stronger political ties in the region. However, the growing …

Last week Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu accused the Syrian regime and the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) of being “in a partnership backstage,” a vaguely worded assertion that seems intentionally couched so that it can be read to imply an explicit partnership or an implicit alignment of interests. On the …

How can international relations help us think about Syria? It can help us think through the problems apparent, even if it can’t explain how the conflict happened or predict how it will end. One of the key “problems” at the moment is who is in control. America? Assad? Russia? At heart, this revolves around the …

Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from the author’s remarks to East Bay Citizens for Peace of the Barrington Congregational Church and the American Friends Service Committee on April 2, 2016 in Barrington, Rhode Island. The original speech was published at the author’s personal website.   One of our most charming characteristics as Americans is …

Recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote a lengthy article that attempts to give a historical background for — as well as justification of — Russian actions, from a wider civilizational context. Lavrov, a veteran of word wizardry, is at his best here, driving us through carefully selected phases of Russian history, including the Mongolian …

As Syrian forces push their advantage against the Islamic State, it is increasingly clear that there are Russians on the ground with them. Some are Spetsnaz special forces, there for recon and forward air control, but others are mercenaries, working for a shadowy outfit in St. Petersburg. Increasingly, the Kremlin is waking up to the …

An Army historical team recently interviewed one of your loyal “Strategic Outpost” columnists about his time as overall U.S. commander in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. The team had already read Dave’s personal notebooks — the government-issued “green books” in which he recorded his daily meetings, notes, to do lists, and impressions of his 19 …

Throughout recent history, Turkish foreign policy has habitually followed international norms and placed its faith in international organizations, especially in matters of defense. As a result, the country’s strategic character stood out among its neighbors. Yet the fallout from the Syrian Civil War has forced Ankara to move away from its rules-oriented liberal approach to …

The terrorist attacks that bookended the week of March 13 exemplify a terrifying new normal in Turkey. That Sunday, a suicide car bomb ripped through Ankara’s central Kızılay district, killing 36 and injuring 127 others. The following Saturday, a suicide bomber killed four and wounded 36 on Istanbul’s major pedestrian thoroughfare, Istiklal Street. “We will …

If you follow Iranian foreign policy wonks on Twitter you’ll have come across plenty of photos of Qasim Suleymani. The wiry silver-haired general is often surrounded by a cadre of Shia militants in Iraq, Hezbollah fighters in Syria or Iranian commandos back from special missions. He often has a knowing smile on his lips. That’s what international relations theorists call “power …

The Los Angeles Times’ contention Sunday that “in Syria, militias armed by the Pentagon fight those armed by the CIA” is basically incorrect. This is complicated, but bear with me. The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are not a monolithic force. Like nearly every other faction in Syria, they’re spread across an archipelago of enclaves …