In foreign affairs, there’s a lot to be said for unpredictability. Puzzlement can induce one’s enemies to hold back or make stupid decisions. Henry Kissinger famously portrayed Nixon as acting “somewhat crazy” to keep the Soviets guessing—even to the point of dramatically elevating the readiness…
Speculations swirled Monday that Trump would respond to the Assad regime’s chemical attack on a Damascus suburb.
The U.N. ambassador slams Putin’s regime and Iran for abetting Bashar al-Assad.
Horrific images from the aftermath of a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria are once again circulating online. The scene of this gassing is the eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus. Both the location and the timing of this apparent war crime are symbolically important. And while the immediate…
Russia, Iran, and North Korea all play a role in the Syrian regime's chemical attacks on its own people.
The result of the Russian election was no surprise, and neither is the list of foreign leaders who lined up to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his victory.
President Obama’s former ambassador to Syria said Monday that Bashar al-Assad, cemented by support from Iran, has essentially won the Syrian civil war and will maintain his grip on power.
Iran continues to boost the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and act as the leading state sponsor of terrorism even as the nuclear deal temporarily limits the country's ability to build a nuclear weapon, according to a top intelligence chief.
In the aftermath of the chemical weapons attacks in Idlib province and the subsequent response of cruise missile strikes on a Syrian airbase authorized by President Trump, both National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have asserted that the Syrian government has…
It must have seemed like a problem from hell: When Samantha Power served as Barack Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, she tirelessly highlighted the depredations of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, publicizing his various barbarities—his indiscriminate killing of civilians, his use of…
Relations between the United States and Russia have hit a low point and should be improved, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said during a trip to Moscow Wednesday. Tillerson spoke after meeting with Vladimir Putin, a meeting that occurred only after much uncertainty as to whether the Russian…
Today on the Daily Standard podcast, former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams says the future of Syria likely involves "zones of influence," a soft partition of Syria with a weak central government. He also says that one of those zones may be an Alawite zone with "significant Russian…
Syria is a bloody mess. Its cities lie in ruins. Its antiquities have been destroyed. And the Syrian leader continues to kill his own people. The death toll may be as high as a half million people. Some 10 million Syrians have been displaced. Reporters working there have described it as "hell on…
After the Trump administration's strike on the Shayrat airfield Thursday, lawmakers, analysts, and the press are asking if the White House has a next move. Certainly it was important to signal that the use of chemical weapons is something the United States could not tolerate. As President Trump…
With President Donald Trump having ordered pinpoint attacks on President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons infrastructure overnight, finally someone is enforcing President Obama's 2013 red line and possibly reversing the course of decades of Western appeasement of the regime of Bashar Assad—and…
Senior writer Michael Warren reports on the Daily Standard Podcast that White House sources suggest "something is changing" when it comes to U.S. policy toward Syria. Will it be regime change, or targeted attacks in response to the recent chemical weapons attack? And how much of the decision will…
How does the Trump administration’s Syria policy differ from the Obama administration's? It's not evident there's much practical distance between the two, despite a prepared statement from President Trump Tuesday afternoon blasting "the past administration's weakness and irresolution."
Michael Flynn, the designated national security advisor for incoming president Donald Trump, communicated by phone frequently late last month with Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. And according to the Washington Post, in one of those phone conversations, Kislyak invited the…
On March 28, 2011, Barack Obama stood behind a presidential podium at the National Defense University and addressed the nation. His ostensible topic was Libya, and his ostensible purpose was to explain his decision to intervene there. And over the course of his 27-minute address, he did this.
Writing at Maclean's, Terry Glavin argues the pit of blood and despair Bashar al-Assad has created with his own people in his own country of Syria—and the civilized world's acquiesence to the terror—is ushering in a new age of tyranny around the world.
On March 28, 2011, Barack Obama stood behind a presidential podium at the National Defense University and addressed the nation. His ostensible topic was Libya, and his ostensible purpose was to explain his decision to intervene there. And over the course of his 27-minute address, he did this.
As Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria celebrates the retaking of Aleppo amidst a horrific humanitarian disaster, President Obama and his administration are increasingly taking heat for ineffective action in the face of the crisis. But just a month ago, the president seemed to suggest that if it…
The Syrian regime has established control over eastern Aleppo, a previously rebel-held section of the city, according to a top Russian official.
The regime of Bashar al-Assad has begun to take over neighborhoods in the beseiged city of Aleppo, with the Syrian authoritarian's forces killing at least 82 civilians on Monday. The New York Times reports on the atrocities:
A State Department official testified Thursday morning that the administration was considering "some new" options to address Russia's activity in Syria at the request of President Obama, some seven months after Secretary of State John Kerry warned of a "plan B" in the event that an agreed-upon…
Thursday night NBC Nightly News aired Bill Neely's "exclusive" interview with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. As Neely later explained, he's been angling for an interview with Assad for 5 years, and finally it came through.
Israel's defense minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons against civilians since the U.S.-Russia sponsored "cessation of hostilities" began. "The Syrians used military grade chemical weapons and lately have been using materials, chlorine, against civilians,…
It was a great year for the Obama administration’s foreign policy . . . says the Obama administration. The State Department even created a new hashtag to celebrate the White House's annus mirabilis—#2015in5Words. "Protecting Arctic Climate and Communities" and "Protecting Health of Our Ocean" are…
Russia's aggressive moves in the Middle East have raised speculation about a new Cold War. A more accurate description would reference the geopolitical, historical, and cultural factors underpinning Russia's imperial ambitions in the south—ambitions that preceded the Cold War and took root in the…
"The United States and our partners are not seeking regime change in Syria," John Kerry said in Moscow this week. The announcement that the White House is fully in line with the position of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's Russian and Iranian sponsors caught some by surprise. Others argue that…