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‘

Hayden Bates, Rebecca Joubin • 12 min read

MER Article

Oasis in the Desert?

From the summer of 2012 through 2014, there were rapid influxes of refugees from Syria into the Zaatari camp in Jordan. The camp’s population spiked in early 2013—from 56,000 in January to a peak of 202,000 just four months later—overwhelming the UN High Commissioner for

Charles Simpson, Denis Sullivan • 17 min read

MER Article

Syrian Refugees in the Media

It was September 2, 2015 when the Syrian refugee crisis abruptly came to dominate the English-language media. On that day broadcast and print outlets led with the iconic image of Alan Kurdi, 3, lying lifeless on a Turkish beach after his family’s failed attempt to cross the Mediterranean

Katty Alhayek • 4 min read

MER Article

NGO Governance and Syrian Refugee "Subjects" in Jordan

The typical image of the Syrian refugee camp in Jordan is one of suffering. Journalistic account after account introduces spectacular stories of devastation and loss. While perhaps dramatized, these tales are not false. Syrian refugee camps have forced hundreds of thousands of strangers to live toge

Madeline Otis Campbell, Sarah Tobin • 18 min read

Current Analysis

Did Russian Intervention Break the Syrian Stalemate?

It is now a cliché to say that the Syrian conflict is complicated, and has multiple regional and international drivers. For some time, all of these complications were adduced to answer the question: “Why is there a military and political stalemate in Syria?” Beginning in September 2015, however, Russian intervention

Samer Abboud • 4 min read

MER Article

On Failing to “Get It Together”

Rain falls thick and heavy outside the window. Shadi sits in the near dark drinking sage tea, fighting the November chill, but more so the pessimistic vantage onto Syria from his refuge in neighboring Jordan. A vocal civil society activist in Homs during the early stages of the Syrian revolution, Sh

Ali Nehmé Hamdan • 16 min read

Current Analysis

Losing Syria’s Youngest Generation

Hasan bounces in his chair, pencil tapping against the table as he bends over the first page of a math exam. He hesitates, before stretching his hand frantically into the air as he waits for help from the program facilitator busy with one of the handful of other boys scattered across the classroom.

Reva Dhingra • 18 min read

Current Analysis

Have Yourself Some Anti-Refugee Hysteria

As holiday shoppers empty their wallets to buy presents for family and friends, there’s been an outbreak of miserliness among our politicians—directed at some of the world’s most helpless people. At least 30 Republican governors, and one Democrat, are vowing to bar Syrian refugees from their states

Chris Toensing • 2 min read

MER Article

“ISIS Is One Piece of the Puzzle”

Yifat Susskind is executive director of MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization based in New York. Jillian Schwedler spoke with her on October 28, 2015, the week after Yanar Mohammed, head of MADRE’s partner group the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), testified before the

Jillian Schwedler • 12 min read

MER Article

Regional Responses to the Rise of ISIS

Regional responses to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, have varied depending on regime perceptions of threat, not only from ISIS itself, but also from other potential rivals, challengers or enemies. Despite the jihadi group’s extensive use of violence in Syria and Iraq and i

Curtis Ryan • 14 min read