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Tunisia’s food shortages shine a spotlight on its core economic failings
Photo by ANIS MILI/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis
  • Tunisia’s food shortages shine a spotlight on its core economic failings

    President Kais Saied’s war on speculation is attempting to direct the focus of people’s anger about food shortages onto speculators. A recent emergency importation of grain has stayed off the emptying of shelves, but as the country’s treasury empties and eventually products begin to disappear from stores again, the people’s patience and faith in his new political project will wear very thin. For now, he is profiting from national exhaustion, but how long till hunger becomes anger and anger becomes a movement?

    April 28, 2022

    Bringing loyalist and opposition factions together: The prospects for reconciliation in new Syria
    Photo by AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis
  • Bringing loyalist and opposition factions together: The prospects for reconciliation in new Syria

    Western visions for a post-war Syria often entail the creation of disarmament and reintegration programs oriented toward members of Islamist groups and militias. However, there is less discussion about how the legacies of state authoritarianism in regime-controlled or otherwise loyalist areas will likely hinder any type of post-war reconciliation.

    April 27, 2022

    Divided Syria: An examination of stabilization efforts and prospects for state continuity
    Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis
  • Divided Syria: An examination of stabilization efforts and prospects for state continuity

    The war in Syria started with a ferocious regime crackdown on nonviolent demonstrations but transformed rapidly into a hydra-headed conflict. Syrian citizens with Gulf support took up arms to defend themselves, extremists rushed in, Iran and its proxies upped the ante, and moderate and extremist opposition forces fought both with each other and regime.

    April 26, 2022

    Why Jordan won't alleviate the Rukban crisis
    Photo by KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis
  • Why Jordan won't alleviate the Rukban crisis

    Last month, members of Congress called on the Biden administration to address the eight-year-long humanitarian crisis at Rukban, a desolate informal displacement camp in the eastern Syria desert, just miles from the U.S.-led coalition base at the al-Tanf garrison (ATG). Since 2015, Syria, Jordan, Russia, and the United States have refrained from claiming responsibility for the camp, resulting in a protracted period of inaction with severe humanitarian consequences.

    April 21, 2022

    «داعش» يتعافى في سوريا… لكن الحاجة ماسة إلى الاستقرار
  • Commentary
  • «داعش» يتعافى في سوريا… لكن الحاجة ماسة إلى الاستقرار

    عندما لقي تنظيم داعش الإقليمي الهزيمة في سوريا قبل أكثر من ثلاث سنوات، احتفل العالم بإنجاز تاريخي. فعلى مدار خمس سنوات، حشد تحالف ضم أكثر من 80 دولة موارده المشتركة لدحر «داعش» في سوريا والعراق، والتصدي للجماعة الإرهابية على الإنترنت، ودحر شبكاتها المالية والشركات التابعة لها المكتشفة حديثاً في جميع أنحاء العالم.

    What can the Syrian civil war tell us about the war in Ukraine?
    Photo by Narciso Contreras/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
  • Analysis
  • What can the Syrian civil war tell us about the war in Ukraine?

    The conflict in Syria may reveal what is likely to unfold as the war in Ukraine continues. The nature of the conflict, the presence of foreign fighters, and the refugee crisis that came to characterize the Syrian civil war may portend what is to come in Ukraine.

    April 12, 2022

    The Parallels of Ukraine and Syria
  • Podcast
  • The Parallels of Ukraine and Syria

    Iulia-Sabina Joja and Charles Lister discuss the parallels between the wars in Ukraine and Syria, the similarities of Russia’s tactics in both conflicts, and what the recent history in Syria may signal for Ukraine in the months ahead.

    April 1, 2022

    Syria’s Education Crisis: A Sustainable Approach After 11 Years of Conflict
    Photo by Anas Alkharboutli/picture alliance via Getty Images.
  • Analysis
  • Syria’s Education Crisis: A Sustainable Approach After 11 Years of Conflict

    Education in Syria faces major disruptions amid the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. Failure by international governments to act urgently endangers the prospects of stabilizing Syria and facilitating recovery.

    March 31, 2022

    Solving Tunisia’s growing waste management problem
    FETHI BELAID/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis
  • Solving Tunisia’s growing waste management problem

    Given its outsized role in contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, waste management is an issue of global importance. Landfills account for almost 5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions and 12% of the world’s emissions of methane. The associated challenges are particularly acute in North Africa, and especially in Tunisia.

    March 31, 2022

    الوجود الإيراني في الحسكة السورية دور متنامي ومصدر تهديد مباشر للقوات الأمريكية
    Photo by DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images
  • Commentary
  • الوجود الإيراني في الحسكة السورية دور متنامي ومصدر تهديد مباشر للقوات الأمريكية

    زيادة القدرات العسكرية واللوجستية للمليشيات الإيرانية في محافظة الحسكة، ازداد منذ مطلع عام 2022، بعد أن كان وجودها يقتصر على مجموعات عسكرية صغيرة وبعض المليشيات المحلية المدعومة من إيران، لكن الأحداث الأخيرة فتحت المجال لها للتغلغل داخل المجتمعات المحلية، مستغلة تراجع الدور الروسي في المنطقة وخلافات العشائر العربية مع الإدارة الذاتية وقوات سوريا الديمقراطية.

    Iran’s growing presence in Syria’s al-Hasakah poses a direct threat to US forces
    Photo by DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis
  • Iran’s growing presence in Syria’s al-Hasakah poses a direct threat to US forces

    During February and early March 2022, the militias of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) located in Syria’s al-Hasakah Governorate brought in several shipments of weapons and military equipment in an effort to strengthen their military and security presence in the governorate, which is considered the richest in Syria in terms of oil and agricultural wealth.