Articles & Multimedia
Showing 1-20 of 26 Publications
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Turkey's deal with Russia still leaves the US with a dilemma on its Syrian strategy
Commentary
Turkey just scored a big win in Syria that could save tens of thousands of lives and avert what would have been the worst humanitarian crisis of an already terrible war, but t...
By Nicholas Heras
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Turkey and the United States Should Work Together to Avert Disaster in Idlib
Commentary
Over the weekend, the Bashar al-Assad regime announced the start of its campaign to retake Syria’s Idlib province—a region home to an estimated 3 million people, including aro...
By Ilan Goldenberg & Nicholas Heras
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The Fall of Daraa
Commentary
On July 6, after more than two weeks of hard fighting, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stood triumphant at the Nasib gate. The gate, which lies on the Jordani...
By Nicholas Heras & Suha Maayeh
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The Pro-Assad Alliance Is Coming Apart
Commentary
In a May 21 speech on U.S. strategy following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo struck a tough tone, pro...
By Ilan Goldenberg & Nicholas Heras
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The One Place in Syria That Works
Commentary
The last few months in Syria have been the latest in a string of awful months. After an estimated 511,000 deaths since the war began in 2011, the Bashar al-Assad regime has re...
By Nicholas Heras & Shadi Martini
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Obama’s ISIS policy is working for Trump
Commentary
Last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered a speech that after a year in office finally laid out a new strategy for Syria. The part that’s getting the most attentio...
By Nicholas Heras & Ilan Goldenberg
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Middle East Security Forum 2017
Commentary
In a region long known for its complexity, the Middle East landscape seems to grow more complicated by the week. To help unpack the latest developments—about Iran’s nuclear pr...
By Michèle Flournoy, Elizabeth Rosenberg, Ilan Goldenberg & Nicholas Heras
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Is America Getting Sucked Into More War in Syria?
While Washington was fixated this week by former FBI director James Comey’s testimony, on the other side of the planet, a major story was playing out that could have profound ...
By Ilan Goldenberg & Nicholas Heras
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Russia’s Escalation in Syria: Making It Tougher to Fight ISIS?
On Thursday, the Trump administration decided to fire 59 cruise missiles from U.S. naval vessels in the Mediterranean at the Al-Shayrat airbase, an important Syrian military a...
By Nicholas Heras
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Ilan Goldenberg and Nicholas Heras discuss Syria in The Washington Post
Commentary
In The Washington Post, CNAS Middle East Security Program experts Ilan Goldenberg and Nicholas Heras discuss President Donald Trump's decision to launch missile strikes agains...
By Ilan Goldenberg & Nicholas Heras
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Can Trump End the War in Syria?
With the near-doubling of U.S. forces in northern Syria, and perhaps more on the way, President Donald Trump is moving aggressively on his pledge to “demolish and destroy” wha...
By Colin H. Kahl, Ilan Goldenberg & Nicholas Heras
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Will the United States Be a Victim of Its Own Success in Syria?
The ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS held in Washington, DC was an important milestone on the path to the Trump team’s mission to fully defeat the w...
By Nicholas Heras
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Al Qaeda Is Gaining Strength in Syria
The struggle for Aleppo poses an awful threat for the United States. The ongoing battle for what was once Syria’s second-largest city has united two of the most prominent oppo...
By Nicholas Heras
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Fighting Terrorism in Syria: It's More Than ISIS
The fact of the matter is that although the United States has provided military assistance to individual Syrian armed opposition groups led by “trusted commanders” since 2012,...
By Nicholas Heras
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From the Bottom, Up: A Strategy for U.S. Military Support to Syria’s Armed Opposition
As negotiations continue to uphold a teetering ceasefire in Syria, Center for a New American Security (CNAS) Middle East Security Program researcher Nicholas Heras has written...
By Nicholas Heras
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Taking the Fight to "ISILSTAN": Displacing and Replacing ISIL in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq
More so than at any time in recent history, last month demonstrated the dichotomous nature of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) current situation. On the one h...
By Ilan Goldenberg, Nicholas Heras & Paul Scharre
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The Reality in Syria Casts a Shadow Over Vienna
Hope is fleeting in Syria. The civil war has killed approximately 250,000 people, displaced more than 11 million (which is more than half of Syria’s pre-war population), cause...
By Nicholas Heras
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Fighting ISIS Means Galvanizing Its Resistance
The U.S. campaign against the self-proclaimed Islamic State (also called ISIS) is unlikely to succeed without a clear strategy for taking the fight to ISIS in eastern Syria by...
By Nicholas Heras
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Can Obama Save the GCC Summit?
As President Barack Obama and the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sit down at Camp David this week, the White House’s goal is clear: reassure America’s Middle Ea...
By Ilan Goldenberg, Nicholas Heras & Shawn Brimley
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The Kobani Model: Strengthening Kurdish-Arab Relations in Syria
The Islamic State (IS) suffered a setbackat the northern Syrian-Turkish border city of Kobani. This much-heralded event was important for a reason that has potential future ra...
By Nicholas Heras
