Category: Fragile states

Rebuilding Syria (and Iraq): Reconstruction and Legitimacy

     

On the sixth anniversary of the Syrian uprising, moderate rebels have never been weaker, analyst Charles Lister writes for Foreign Policy. Within two years of its resurgence, the Islamic State… Read more »

Venezuela opposition parties fear election ban

     

United States Treasury sanctions have now brought international scrutiny on Venezuela’s vice-president Tareck El Aissami, reportedly involved in narcotics rackets from Colombia to Mexico, who went from being an unknown… Read more »

Counter-ISIS plus vs. jihadists’ ‘war of attrition’?

     

Al Qaeda and the Islamic State could reconcile their differences to present a different but persistent security challenge to the United States for the foreseeable future, experts in counterterrorism told… Read more »

Reclaiming Mosul: concerns about politics the ‘day after’

     

An array of Iraqi forces, backed by a broad international coalition, is closing in on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, united in their determination to crush the jihadists but… Read more »

After Mosul: state-building means democratic state-building

     

A dispute between Iraq and Turkey has emerged as a dramatic geopolitical sideshow to the complicated military campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State, with Turkey’s… Read more »

Closing space and state fragility

     

Newfound modesty about Western interventionism does not just concern development assistance, but also democracy promotion and state-building, argues Ellen Laipson, president emeritus of the Stimson Center. “In policy discussions, one… Read more »

Venezuela opposition calls Oct 12 protest for Maduro recall

     

Venezuela‘s opposition called on Monday for mass rallies nationwide on Oct. 12 to push for a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro this year as they seek to oust his… Read more »

Can Jordan’s autocratic regime democratize?

     

A recent change of government and looming parliamentary elections brings Jordan, a vital U.S. ally, back into policy discussions, say analysts Sean Yom and Wael Al-Khatib. And, inevitably, pundits will… Read more »

Confronting the challenge of ‘state fragility’

     

  For more than two decades, addressing fragility has been an evolving bipartisan priority for U.S. policymakers. Yet growing understanding and consensus about the problem has failed to generate the… Read more »

Venezuela: Edge of the Precipice

     

The Organization of American States will meet Thursday to discuss the deepening crisis in Venezuela, where the opposition is pushing forward with efforts to activate a recall referendum of President… Read more »