Press
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Kurds’ Sense of Betrayal Compounded by Empowerment of Unsavory Rivals
The United States had encouraged its Kurdish allies to dismantle their defenses in northern Syria, saying it would make it easier to assure Turkey that the Kurds posed no thre...
By Nicholas Heras
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Can Damascus-Ankara face off in Syria flare up?
In The News
A week-old Turkish invasion of northeast Syria combined with a US withdrawal have redrawn the lines and left Russian-backed Syrian regime troops and Ankara’s forces standing f...
By Nicholas Heras
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Turkey deal may ease domestic criticism of Trump but doubts remain
Turkey's agreement to suspend military operations against the Syrian Kurds may give President Donald Trump a reprieve from accusations he abandoned the US allies but it is als...
By Nicholas Heras
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Cease-Fire Chaos: The Kurds, Turkey, and Trump Administration are Touting Different Strategies
In The News
Vice President Mike Pence claims to have arranged a “cease-fire” between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds, but no one is on the same page.“This is not a cease-fire, this is a pause...
By Nicholas Heras
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As the U.S. withdraws, Assad and Putin are emerging as the winners in Syria
In The News
In less than a week, the tectonic plates have shifted beyond recognition in the Middle East. The U.S. counterterrorism operation against the Islamic State militant group, or ...
By Ilan Goldenberg
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The Trump Administration Has Only One Move
Turkey had to have seen this coming. Granted, it didn’t feature in the phone call last week where Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan informed his American counterpart of ...
By Elizabeth Rosenberg
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Russia takes over key U.S. outposts in Syria, filling vacuum left by American withdrawal
In The News
Russian troops have occupied positions in Syria that just days ago had been U.S. outposts, filling the vacuum left when President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of Americ...
By Nicholas Heras
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Desperate Kurds See Only Enemies Around Them. A Special Report From Qamishli, Syria
In The News
It’s 9 P.M. and pitch black. On the M4 highway connecting the towns Tal Tamr and Qamishli, a checkpoint held by Kurdish forces is lit up like a Christmas tree. Cones on the as...
By Nicholas Heras
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Hundreds of ISIS prisoners are escaping from camps in northern Syria amid Turkish offensive
Islamic State fighters are seizing a chance to escape and regroup as U.S.-allied Kurdish forces turn their attention from guarding thousands of captive extremists to defending...
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Bewildering twists and turns around Trump’s Syria withdrawal decision
Only a week ago, a senior US official insisted that the Trump administration was not about to pull out troops from Syria. But that that was upended by US President Donald Tru...
By Nicholas Heras
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Pentagon to withdraw 1,000 troops from Syria within weeks, pulling back in fight against ISIS
In The News
The Pentagon will pull virtually all its troops from Syria over the next few weeks, reversing years of U.S. policy on fighting Islamic State terrorists in the Middle East, as ...
By Nicholas Heras
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Venezuelan oil output could be halved without Chevron waiver extension: analysts
In The News
Venezuelan oil production, already averaging a historic low near 600,000 b/d, could quickly plummet below 300,000 b/d if the Trump administration allows a waiver for Chevron a...
By Neil Bhatiya
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Pullback Leaves Green Berets Feeling ‘Ashamed,’ and Kurdish Allies Describing ‘Betrayal’
American commandos were working alongside Kurdish forces at an outpost in eastern Syria last year when they were attacked by columns of Syrian government tanks and hundreds of...
By Nicholas Heras
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Turkey says it can fight Islamic State. Its record is spotty.
In The News
Foreign recruits of Islamic State, eager to migrate to the territory the militant group had carved out in Iraq and Syria, would prepare their staples — a phone, a solar charge...
By Nicholas Heras
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Exposed and under fire, Syria's Kurds may turn to Damascus
In The News
A US withdrawal from Syria's northern border this week has exposed Washington's Kurdish partners to a Turkish assault, creating conditions for a rapprochement with Damascus th...
By Nicholas Heras
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Turkey’s refugee plan met with widespread skepticism
In The News
In the face of widespread international criticism for his military foray into northern Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains defiant, standing by his pledge to return ...
By Nicholas Heras
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Syria Kurds battle Turkish invasion
In The News
Syria's Kurds battled to hold off a Turkish invasion on Thursday after air strikes and shelling launched a long-threatened operation that could reshape the country and trigger...
By Nicholas Heras
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In Syria, Trump Distills a Foreign Policy of Impulse, and Faces the Fallout
No one should have been surprised, and yet it seems that everyone was. President Trump made clear long ago that he wanted to get out of the Middle East, but even some of his o...
By Richard Fontaine
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Technology & National Security
Artificial Intelligence Moving to Battlefield as Ethics WeighedThe Pentagon, taking the next big step of deploying artificial intelligence to aid troops and help select battlefield targets, must settle lingering ethical concerns about usi...
By Paul Scharre
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Trump's abrupt withdrawal from Syria may allow ISIS to come back with a vengeance — using the group's time-tested strategy
US President Donald Trump's announcement that he would remove US troops from northeastern Syria, where as many as 12,000 ISIS fighters are being held by Kurdish-led Syrian Dem...
By Nicholas Heras
