For much of the Syrian civil war, the southern city of Deraa and the surrounding Houran Plains, an agricultural region near the Jordanian border, were divided between government forces and armed rebels. Fighting raged back and forth, killing thousands. It was not until Russia backed a government offensive in 2018 …

Putin będzie nakręcał spiralę strachu. Potrzebna jest mu cała Ukraina oraz rozmontowanie solidarności sojuszniczej Zachodu – czy to w ramach NATO, czy współpracy transatlantyckiej. Od początku rosyjskiej ofensywy w sprawie rewizji koncepcji bezpieczeństwa europejskiego Moskwa kilkakrotnie dokonywała zmian w scenariuszu. Przepychanie pomysłów zawartych w grudniowym ultimatum pod adresem Zachodu: pisemne …

After the disappointments of 2021, can Venezuela’s government and opposition get negotiations back on track in the year ahead? Venezuela enters 2022 with persistent challenges but also some tangible opportunities. Left behind are the unrealistic aspirations of the immediate exodus of Chavismo — leaving room for the incremental development of …

NATO unity and diplomacy are the hopes for preventing a wider Russian invasion. The risk of a new Russian invasion of Ukraine remains high after today’s meeting in Geneva between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The United States delivered its warning, with European allies, …

The three-day conclave in Oslo on January 23-25 for interaction for a core group of Western diplomats with Taliban officials marks a new phase in the political situation in Afghanistan. The West was represented by the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy as well as the European Union. Norway is …

The United States and NATO have delivered written responses to Russian demands for security guarantees, rejecting Moscow’s insistence on a withdrawal of NATO forces from Eastern Europe and an assurance that Ukraine will never be granted membership in the alliance. That firmly puts the ball back in Russian President Vladimir …

Assessing the Biden administration’s performance in the Middle East at the one-year mark requires some careful metrics. Should the benchmark be a comparison to the turbulent Trump years, or to earlier times when U.S. diplomacy was defining the regional agenda and, on occasion, making a meaningful contribution to achieving peace? …

At its height half a decade ago, the Islamic State was among the most feared armed organizations in the world. The infamously brutal group had at one point captured and established governance of more than a third of Iraq and large swaths of Syria. But that shocking, sudden rise to …

As Russia amasses more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders, the Kremlin is holding the country at gunpoint while imposing outrageous demands on the West. On Dec. 17, 2021, Moscow issued two draft “treaties” demanding legal guarantees for the reversal of NATO’s open door policy, which is enshrined in the …

In a sign of strengthening relations, a long procession of foreign ministers from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) visited China earlier this month. In addition, two MENA nations signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) involving the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s global infrastructure development effort. The fact that …