The Battle for Eurasia
China, Russia, and their autocratic friends are leading another epic clash over the world’s largest landmass.
Jussi Tanner spent nearly two years bargaining with the Kurdish-led autonomous government.
The parallels are easy to list.
“The Daughters of Kobani” chronicles the female Kurdish fighters who battled terrorists, fought for equality, and then got stabbed in the back.
Now that it’s beaten back the Islamic State, the Kurdistan Regional Government is focusing its attention on a group it has long tolerated.
Washington can reduce Moscow’s influence and support Kurdish allies without a large troop presence in the region.
Western governments have shirked their responsibilities for far too long.
After 17 years, there is little love left between Washington and Baghdad. Upcoming talks may be the last opportunity to save their dysfunctional partnership.
Ankara claims it’s helping displaced Syrians return home. Kurds and international observers accuse Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government of demographic engineering.
A host of forces including Turkish and Iranian proxies to Russian troops and Syrian government forces are jockeying for control of the lands that once were held by the Islamic State.
The debacle over Syria shows that neither party understands the country’s real goals in the Middle East—or what it would take to achieve them.
Safe zones rarely bring security benefits, and the Turkish incursion in northern Syria risks ending the same way as Israel’s disastrous occupation of southern Lebanon.
The global order has been stuck with states since 1648. It’s time to move on.
Senior U.S. officials fought to reverse Trump’s withdrawal, with disastrous consequences for the Kurds.
With Washington’s policy in chaos and Erdogan moving into Putin’s orbit, Moscow has come out on top.
Since neither leader can enforce the terms, the country’s war will wear on.
In Washington, a Kurdish leader accused the Trump administration of misleading her people.
The country’s offensive in northern Syria was preceded by the suppression of the Kurdish political movement at home.
By going along with the myth that the president is pulling out of the Middle East, his critics are helping make U.S. wars there worse.
By abandoning the Kurds in Syria, Trump has undermined one of his central foreign policies.
The tentative agreement negotiated by the United States was seen as a major victory for Ankara.