US decision to send arms to Syrian rebels may make bad situation worse
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that President Obama has ceded too much to the pressures and assurances from “aides and critics.” Perhaps as... Read More
Syria – a revolution at any cost?
Decentralizing the Syrian peace process is a pragmatic answer to the fact that the rebels don’t have a central authority, and that it is very... Read More
Solving the Syrian conflict starts with shutting up
Can a decentralised transitional power model – as proposed in ‘Solving the Syrian conflict starts with building trust’ – really be carried out by western diplomats... Read More
Turkey and the Kurdish conflict – domestic agenda meets regional concerns
Though a possible peace deal with the PKK has a lot to offer to Turkey, the process is still susceptible to spoilers. Should the rumoured PKK... Read More
Serbia and Syria
There has been a failure of public diplomacy by the US, the UK, France and Germany to serve the interests of stability in either Serbia or... Read More
Solving the Syrian conflict starts by building trust
A locally-focused, bottom-up approach which puts Syrian interests first offers a prospective path for transition and a peaceful settlement to the conflict.
After Syria
The Lebanonization of Syria means the latter could face a long period of instability and rivalry among sectarian, tribal, and other competitors for power, resources,... Read More
Damascus and the Tariqa (the way by initiation)
With the current hardening of the sense of duality between Syrian government and opposition, good faith negotiations seem even further away. The vision of an... Read More
Where did Assad go to school?
The Sri Lanka model – where a long, low-intensity civil war reached a violent, bloody climax; yet its architects remain in power and have escaped... Read More
Syria – to break the downward spiral
It is necessary to consider what role NGOs might now play in Syria – particularly to support the mediation efforts of former UN secretary-general, Kofi... Read More