Current Analysis

The Elusive Quest for a Kurdish State

Kurdish communities in the Middle East have been struggling for independence, autonomy and civil rights since at least the 1880s. While Kurdish movements across the region have suffered from fragmentation, the more formidable obstacle to fulfilling Kurdish aspirations are regional and global geopoli

Djene Rhys Bajalan • 18 min read

Current Analysis

Turkish Intervention in Syria Heightens Authoritarianism in Turkey and Fragmentation in Syria

Turkish military incursions into Syria since 2016 are shaping power dynamics not only in Syria but also domestically. Turkish state building practices in Syria are changing the demographics of the border area in Syria and benefiting Turkish industry and political elites. At home, Ankara is suppressi

Sinem Adar • 10 min read

MER Article

The Tragedies and Dilemmas of US Intervention in Northeast Syria

At the very beginning of the Syrian uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Asad in 2011, and during the early stages of the slide into civil war, Washington made the serious miscalculation that the Asad regime would fall quickly. When the regime failed to collapse, it appeared that President

Sean Lee • 14 min read

MER Article

Generational Dislocations

Since 2011, violence in Syria has worsened the widespread displacement of people in the Middle East and destroyed several cities. The images of displaced Syrian families fleeing to Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon broadcast around the world had a haunting resonance. Archival photographs of Armenian refuge

Joanne Randa Nucho • 9 min read

MER Article

Conventional Humanitarian Solutions Fail the Test

Syrians experienced the largest single-day exodus of the war on March 15, 2018. Seven years to the day since the start of the uprising in Syria, some 45,000 civilians fled their homes in besieged Eastern Ghouta. The fact that such large-scale displacement took place over the course of a single day a

Parastou Hassouri • 11 min read

MER Article

Refugee Rights Hit the Wall

The expansion of humanitarian aid in Syria and its neighboring states has gone hand-in-hand with a growing restriction on refugees’ right of movement and ever-stricter control over refugees’ personal information and biometric data. UNHCR and the Syrian and Jordanian governments share two interests i

Sophia Hoffmann • 8 min read

MER Article

The Politics of Health in Counterterrorism Operations

In the conflict zones of Afghanistan, where multiple fronts shift concurrently, the lines between who is, or is not, a legitimate recipient of aid and protection are not just blurred but erased. As in other counterterrorism wars, these life or death issues are exacerbated by shifting power and terri

Jonathan Whittall • 13 min read

Current Analysis

Is the Rojava Dream at Risk? An Interview with Dilar Dirik

In April 2018 Giuseppe Acconica spoke with Dilar Dirik, an activist with the Kurdish women’s movement in the Rojava region of Northern Syria.

Giuseppe Acconcia • 6 min read

MER Article

The Syrian Uprising and Mobilization 
of the Syrian Diaspora in South America

The Syrian uprising against President Bashar al-Asad’s government that began in 2011, and the armed conflict that followed, has generated a strong reaction among the large populations of Arabic-speaking immigrants and their descendants in both Brazil and Argentina. Institutions and community members mobilized in the past around political issues

Paolo Pinto, Cecilia Baeza • 13 min read

MER Article

Syria Dispatch

The Trump administration has thus inherited a basket of policies that were largely focused on narrowly targeted US military intervention against ISIS, and the acceptance of continued violence and instability in Syria even amidst Russian military intervention into the conflict. In the first year of t

Samer Abboud • 5 min read

MER Article

From the Editor (Winter 2016)

As the baleful administration of President Donald Trump bumbles from one scandal to the next, a set of deeply disturbing patterns have emerged in the domestic politics and foreign policy of the United States.

Chris Toensing • 3 min read

MER Article

Growing Up In Wartime

For years prior to the March 2011 uprising in Syria, writers of the sketch comedy series Buq‘at Daw’ (Spotlight) used symbolism and wordplay to mount a not-so-subtle challenge to the regime on state television. [1. Rebecca Joubin, “Resistance Amid Regime Cooptation on the Syrian Television Series Buq‘at Daw’

Hayden Bates, Rebecca Joubin • 12 min read