A negotiated peace may be Syria’s only salvation from imminent demise, but internal complexities and strategically incoherent external responses mean it will not be forthcoming.
Much has been made in the media of the women jihadists of IS, but this kind of violence by women is not unprecedented and is comparable to the Algerian experience of the 1990s.
When words do not align with values, any crime can be justified.
The relocation of Tel Afar's Turkmen will provide them with immediate safety, but may have long-term consequences both for them as an ethnic group and for Iraqi demographics.
On 29 June, after the spectacular takeover of Mosul and other Iraqi cities, the Islamic State (IS) declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. How can the sudden rise to power of IS be explained? What is the future of the caliphate, and of the region as a whole? Romain Caillet provides an assessment.
The latest raid on camps in Calais is an example of Europe continuing to strengthen border controls and crack down on migrants. But violence and coercion will not deter those who are determined to reach a safe haven at any cost.
Or at least, who cares enough to try to start thinking anew? The region is burning. Apart from the parties to the conflicts who want to win, nobody seems to have any idea of what to do.
Egypt's heavy-handed crackdown on the Sinai insurgency may need recalibration in order to gain the support of, rather than alienate, the indigenous Bedouin community
In a series commemorating the uprising's third anniversary, Syrian revolutionary activist Joseph Daher answers key questions still circulating in the western digital commons. In this first part he offers us a short history of the socio-economic causes behind the protests that sprang up across Syri
A popular Syrian intellectual responds to questions on the Syrian conflict and the west. Throughout, Yassin confronts and reframes several western fears and constructs about Islamists, intervention and the development of the uprising.
As the civil war in Syria continues, refugees are desperately seeking refuge. It seems that Bulgaria has consistently preferred to engage in exacerbating the situation. Bulgarians have built a wall and are allowing far-right xenophobic rhetoric to prevail.
Is the Syrian crisis threatening to end 40 years of cold peace between Syria and Israel? How long will Syria and its allies pursue a policy of restraint and containment?
