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Tag Archives: Syria

Strike on Syria: What Kind of World?

Strike on Syria: What Kind of World?

President Woodrow Wilson has long fascinated me. He is one of those presidents that is a giant in history, but few people know much about him. Steven Spielberg has never made a movie about him, you don’t hear his name referenced on the Sunday talk shows, and he seems entirely missing from pop-culture. And yet […]

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Strike on Syria: Dissenting Voices

Strike on Syria: Dissenting Voices

In the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq the American mainstream news media underwent a period of intense introspection (and by that I mean brief and superficial reflection) about how little critical reporting and analysis they offered in the run-up to the war. Is there a danger that the news media will once again […]

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The Last of the Red Lines

The Last of the Red Lines

By Manuel Langendorf With a heightened sense of urgency to act on Syria, Washington is resorting to moral arguments. What appears to have been a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, has made a potential U.S.-led military strike against the Syrian government a very real possibility. Shocking videos of dozens of dead […]

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Spineless on Syria

Spineless on Syria

As tension mounts after Syria’s alleged—though clearly evident—use of chemical weapons to systematically slaughter civilians, outreach against the regime emerged most vocally from the White House and State Department, as well as their counterparts across Europe. Some voices — namely those from China and Russia — are, as expected, silent or deflecting criticism from the […]

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Moral Obscenities and American Hypocrisy

Moral Obscenities and American Hypocrisy

As I watched Secretary of State John Kerry stand before the lectern last Monday afternoon and give an impassioned speech decrying the use of chemical weapons in Syria, I was briefly transported back in time to about two years ago. I was in the Vietnamese town of Gia Nghia in the province of Dak Nong, […]

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The Shadow of Iraq?

The Shadow of Iraq?

  After one week of progressive securitization of the Syrian problem by the US, Britain and France, it appears that the members of the Euro-Atlantic community were getting ready to build a coalition of the willing in order to punish Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons against Syrian civilians. The United Nations recently sent UN […]

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A Candid Discussion with Reza Aslan

A Candid Discussion with Reza Aslan

Dr. Reza Aslan is an internationally acclaimed American writer and scholar of religions and author, most recently, of the Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Dr. Aslan is also the founder of Aslan Media, an online journal for news and entertainment about the Middle East and the world, and co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of […]

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The Guns of August Redux

The Guns of August Redux

The classic book The Guns of August is not exactly standard summertime beach reading material. It is, however, a book I like to turn to every once in a while to remind me of the role of folly in international affairs. In the book, author Barbara Tuchman studiously examines the role of misconception, misperception and […]

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The paucity of hope

The paucity of hope

Nothing seems to be safe in Egypt these days.  Political opponents of the military leadership are the chief targets for the attacks, attacks that include live fire from security forces. They are not alone: The seething rampages have spread to Christian churches, the media, foreigners, those held in custody, and even to the corpses waiting […]

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The FPA’s Must Reads (7/25-8/1)

The FPA’s Must Reads (7/25-8/1)

Weekly updates on the best long form reads and blog posts from ForeignPolicyBlogs.com’s editorial team.

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A War of Words on Syria

A War of Words on Syria

The language of war could swell volumes with what would at once be the most depressing and coldly technical glossaries of chaos ever scribed.  The intersection of political calculation and unrelenting violence is formed by an endless stream of words.  Open-air condemnations and closed-door strategizing.  Shouts and whispers, threats and rumors.  Uncapped fury and profound […]

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The Humanitarian Toll of the Syrian Crisis

The Humanitarian Toll of the Syrian Crisis

Syria long ago became a source of a steady trickle of bad news but recent reports coming from several UN agencies working in Syria highlight just how dire the humanitarian situation there has become. First up is a new report from the World Food Programme and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that found as […]

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Egypt’s Revolution has the potential to surpass Syrian violence

Egypt’s Revolution has the potential to surpass Syrian violence

To coup or not to coup? Who cares? Whatever label it is being given, coup or revolution, what the Egyptian military accomplished less than one week ago is removing a government supposedly democratically elected. This comes on the heels of a previous removal of a long-standing dictator — Hosni Mubarak —  just over two years […]

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Obama and Syria: Red Lines Redeemed?

Obama and Syria: Red Lines Redeemed?

I’ve contended in previous posts (here, here and here) that President Obama’s failure to enforce his numerous threats against the use of chemical weapons by the Bashir al-Assad regime in Damascus is a significant reason to doubt the credibility of his repeated vows to use military force to stop Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.  So is my argument undermined now […]

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John Kerry soldiers on

John Kerry soldiers on

The first time I wrote a story about John Kerry, in 1986, he got very angry. So did his press person. It was, to paraphrase Richard Blaine, the start of a beautiful professional friendship. It has now been almost three decades since that story and the professional relationship took off, grew strong and beneficial to […]

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