Syria

Syria and the politicisation of British foreign policy

With the parliamentary rejection of a major foreign policy initiative, Britain has crossed a watershed in foreign policy making, but the question is not about whether the UK engages with the world. It is about how its foreign policy is made.

Eight things to consider before intervening in Syria

Before any Western intervention in the Syrian conflict, eight key issues need to be considered – from the goals of intervention and the legal issue to the regional impact and the possibility of a diplomatic alternative

The regional struggle for Syria

Two years after the beginning of an uprising against President Bashar-al-Assad, Syria is gripped by an ever deepening civil war that is having a significant impact on the entire region.  

Syria: the Kurdish view

This essay forms part of an eight-part ECFR series exploring the regional responses, dynamics and ramifications of the Syrian uprising and civil war. These…

Syria: the view from Israel

Israel’s strategic approach to Syria can be described as wary, pragmatic and broken down into specific micro areas of threats and interests rather than comprising a comprehensive picture of what kind of Syria it would like to see, and what it could do to facilitate this outcome.  

Syria: the view from Lebanon

Tensions in Lebanon, whose political fate has long been intimately tied to Syria, are sharpening rapidly as its neighbour sinks deeper into a sectarian civil war. But a growing number of clashes within Lebanon are now raising fears that a domestic eruption is becoming hard to avoid.  

Syria: the view from Turkey

The crisis in Syria has presented a profound challenge to Ankara’s orientation towards Damascus, forcing it to adapt to changing conditions on the ground that confounded the expectations of Turkish policy makers – as well as challenging its Zero Problem with Neighbors (ZPwN) foreign policy.  

Syria: the view from Jordan

Amman has gradually escalated its anti-Assad posture, providing wider political and military support in a bid to try and prevent the emergence of a chaotic no man’s land on its border, it continues to seek a political deal to end the conflict.  

Syria: the view from Iran

This essay forms part of an eight-part ECFR series exploring the regional responses, dynamics and ramifications of the Syrian uprising and civil war. These…

Syria: the view from Iraq

The government of Nouri al-Maliki has positioned itself as a firm supporter of Bashar al-Assad, notably out of fear that his defeat would empower similar Sunni opposition forces in Iraq. But Iraq’s Sunni actors and Kurds are using the crisis in Syria to assert their own ambitions.