Reports
Showing 1-20 of 22 Publications
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From the Bottom, Up
Reports
With the current state of the Syrian civil war, the conditions are not ripe for de-escalation in the conflict. If the United States is seeking a transition from the Assad regi...
By Nicholas Heras
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Reset, Negotiate, Institutionalize
Reports
Since the start of the Arab revolutions five years ago, the Middle East has experienced unprecedented instability. In such an impossibly fluid situation, the initial response ...
By Ilan Goldenberg
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How This Ends: A Blueprint for De-Escalation in Syria
Deputy Director of Studies and Leon E. Panetta Fellow Dr. Dafna H. Rand and Research Associate Nicholas Heras argue for the importance of focusing on a political framework for...
By Dafna Rand & Nicholas Heras
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Bringing the Fight Back Home: Western Foreign Fighters in Iraq and Syria
“Bringing the Fight Back Home” argues that the changing dynamics on the ground in Iraq are accelerating the urgency of the threat from the approximately 3,000 foreign fighters...
By Anthony Vassalo & Dafna Rand
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After the Awakening: Future Security Trends in the Middle East
CNAS Research Associate Jacob Stokes identifies seven major trends driving Middle East geopolitics and economics in After the Awakening: Future Security Trends in the Middle E...
By Jacob Stokes
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Consequence Considerations of a Syrian Strike
Before any authorization to attack Syria is given, it is necessary to contemplate and take appropriate action to mitigate any negative consequences from the strikes. There are...
By Gordon Miller
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International Law Constrains U.S. Action in Syria
Two basic legal principles animate our current international system: states are sovereign, and they shall not, generally speaking, attack each other. . . . As the U.S. weighs ...
By Phillip Carter
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The Danger of Strategic Distraction
The United States will respond to the horrifying use of chemical weapons by the Asad regime. It is in America's interests to be seen as leading the charge against such an abom...
By Shawn Brimley
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Syria and the Responsibility to Protect
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a powerful emerging international norm. President Obama has given it lip service and he has taken modest, yet important, bureaucratic s...
By Richard Williamson
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The President Is Right to Intervene, But Then What?
President Obama is right to take action in response to the Asad regime’s chemical attack on Syrian civilians. Yet in the absence of a strategy that aims at ending the broader ...
By Richard Fontaine
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Syria's Hard Landing
As the conflict in Syria escalates into an even more brutal civil war, it not only continues to cause great human suffering, but it also threatens to undermine the stability o...
By Marc Lynch
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Revitalizing the Partnership: The United States and Iraq a Year after Withdrawal
As the United States marks the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, in Revitalizing the Partnership: The United States and Iraq A Year After Withdrawal, Senior Fellow Nor...
By Melissa Dalton & Nora Bensahel
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Iraq in Hindsight: Views on the U.S. Withdrawal
In Iraq in Hindsight: Views on the U.S. Withdrawal, Emma Sky offers a pointed critique of U.S. policy over the last decade, arguing that valuable lessons can be learned from t...
By Emma Sky
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Asad Under Fire: Five Scenarios for the Future of Syria
The brutal conflict underway in Syria jeopardizes key U.S. strategic interests, but leaves Washington with few attractive options to protect them and little leverage over the ...
By Melissa Dalton
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Pressure Not War: A Pragmatic and Principled Policy Towards Syria
If Syria is to have any chance of reaching political transition, the United States and the international community must respond to the increasing violence there through an enh...
By Marc Lynch
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The Burden: America's Hard Choices in Post-Election Iraq
In this policy brief, CNAS Senior Fellow Tom Ricks argues that U.S. and Iraqi policymakers should go back to the drawing board and find a solution that prevents Iraq from unra...
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After the Fire: Shaping the Future U.S. Relationship with Iraq
Since 2003, debates about America’s role in Iraq have focused on how to withdraw U.S. forces. Yet the search for an “end game” emphasizes a short-term objective - getting out ...
By Brian Burton & John A. Nagl
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Shaping the Iraq Inheritance
American policy in Iraq will undergo two critical transitions throughout the remainder of 2008 and into early 2009: movement to a new U.S. posture in Iraq; and a wartime trans...
By Colin H. Kahl, Michèle Flournoy & Shawn Brimley
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The Case for Conditional Engagement in Iraq
Five years into the war in Iraq with no end in sight, a new strategy is needed. The current strategy of unconditional support to Iraq’s central government has not produced nea...
By Colin H. Kahl & Shawn Brimley
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Measuring Progress in Iraq
Nobody seems to know how to talk about and evaluate “progress” in Iraq, or the lack thereof. In the context of the confusion, progress should be evaluated along several dimens...
By Colin H. Kahl
