Foreign Policy Blogs

Syria

Iran’s Foreign Policy vis-à-vis Arab Uprisings

Iran’s Foreign Policy  vis-à-vis Arab Uprisings

The following is a contributing piece from guest writer Ladan Yazdian. Ms. Yazdian is a foreign affairs and Middle East specialist. She holds a BA and an MA in political science. She is currently a Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech, working on global security, foreign policy, international relations, and human rights. In the wake of […]

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Major Foreign Policy and Academic Figures Urge the U.S. to Take Further Action Against the Assad Regime

Major Foreign Policy and Academic Figures Urge the U.S. to Take Further Action Against the Assad Regime

In light of President Obama’s recent call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, The Foreign Policy Initiative Executive Director Jamie M. Fly and 32 other signatories have signed a letter urging President Obama to take additional, common-sense steps to further pressure the Assad regime and thus make clear that the United States stands […]

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Amnesty International: “Response to Syria Bloodshed Completely Inadequate” and “Deeply Disappointing”

Amnesty International: “Response to Syria Bloodshed Completely Inadequate” and “Deeply Disappointing”

Suzanne Trimel, Media Relations Director Amnesty International USA New York – Amnesty International today called the United Nations Security Council response to the bloodshed in Syria “completely inadequate” and “deeply disappointing” and pressed the Council for a “firm and legally binding” position imposing an arms embargo, freezing President Al-Assad’s assets and pursuing an international investigation […]

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Sectarian Strife Strikes Syria

Sectarian Strife Strikes Syria

This week the Syrian Uprising has taken on a newly sectarian character, a disturbing development, and one that could spell a much more violent and unpredictable future for the unstable nation. On Sunday, Homs, Syria’s third largest city, saw the first openly sectarian violence of the now almost five month old unrest. It appears that […]

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Threefold Repetition

Threefold Repetition

In chess there are several ways a game can end without a victor, none of them particularly satisfying. There is the stalemate, when a player cannot move but is not in check; essentially a locked board. There is the fifty-move rule, which kicks in when fifty successive moves do not result in a capture; no […]

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Quick Update

Quick Update

As the FPA Blog site is going under the knife in about an hour, I won’t have time to put up a full post today. However, I wanted to get something up before the anesthetic sets in. As readers of yesterday’s post know, signs were pointing towards a governmental attempt to seize the reform narrative. […]

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Surprises Abound in Syria

Surprises Abound in Syria

First of all, allow yours truly to apologize for the conspicuous gap in posts of late. There has been a fairly serious medical emergency with the paterfamilias which has kept me away from the blogosphere. My bad. The good news is that all is now well, and I’m back to a regular posting schedule. Lucky […]

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Turkey, UN Maneuvers & Nukes

Another day of Syria dominating the press. I’ll try my best to continue to update things in anticipation of another pivotal friday of protests coming up tomorrow. Check it. Northern Exposure Continued I just want to continue to update the Jisr al-Shaggour story. As of this evening, the number of Syrian refugees to have crossed […]

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Syria Hashtag Explodes!

Syria Hashtag Explodes!

Before I start off today’s post I want to thank the OLLI program of Portland for having me yesterday. I gave a presentation there on my experiences in Syria, and could not have had a more pleasant experience. It’s very rewarding to get the opportunity to speak with such an involved and engaged group of […]

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Opposition Speaks

On Friday I mentioned the now completed “Conference for Change” held by the Syrian opposition in Antalya, Turkey. The conference was very important for a variety of reasons. Today I want to expand a bit on why that conference was so important, who exactly was there, dissect the final statement issued by the conference, and […]

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Game On; The Opposition is Back

Game On; The Opposition is Back

So the outcome of the Syrian uprising is not as clear cut as I would have had you believe a few short weeks ago. The opposition has rallied and is once again putting some pretty serious pressure on the Assad regime. Protestors took to the streets in significant numbers today. The numerous arms of the […]

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Obama's False Choice For Syria

“President Assad now has a choice: He can lead that transition, or get out of the way.” This is the key phrase of President Barack Obama’s speech regarding Syria. Yawn. I can’t say it came as a big surprise, but this speech was largely a waste of time, and a missed opportunity, especially when looked at […]

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Border Dash

Border Dash

May 15th is a complicated day in the Middle East, and this year was no different. While Israel marks its independence day, Palestinians mourn the Nakba, or catastrophe. In years past there have usually been protests of a relatively low intensity, a few marches and a few protestors, heavy on slogans and low on impact. […]

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Another Weekend Wrap-Up

Another friday of protests has come and gone: Assad is still in power, however, many protests continue. The past week has seen a raising of rhetorical stakes from the West, despite the fact that the West is pretty much powerless to do anything. US Secretary of State Clinton suggested that the US is closer to declaring […]

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The Class Clash

The one issue that seems to be getting thrown under the bus, and what might just be most important in the Syrian context, is the issue of class.

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