Atlantic Council

The recent joint statement from US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov set events into motion to end the Syrian tragedy by revisiting the June 2012 Geneva Communiqué.

The 15-3 vote on May 21 in the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee authorizing the administration to provide lethal and nonlethal assistance to vetted elements of Syria's armed opposition is a potentially significant step toward encouraging President Barack Obama to reverse the decision he made nearly a year ago to deny lethal assistance.

The relationship between the United States and the Gulf is active, successful in security and economic terms, and has the potential for significant growth. In fact, US-Gulf ties are probably at the highest point in their history. However, it is a young relationship—barely fifty years old in most cases—and it is fragile.

With Yemen’s National Dialogue firmly underway and a recent presidential directive appointing new military commanders, it is an appropriate moment to assess how far Yemen has come in its transition and what remains ahead.

"We have the chance to show that America values the dignity of the street vendor in Tunisia more than the raw power of the dictator ... America must use all our influence to encourage reform in the region ... we need to speak honestly about the principles that we believe in, with friend and foe alike."

Which prominent American spoke these words?

Algeria may be teetering on the brink of a crisis, with the three pillars of the regime’s stability—its powerful military, abundant revenues from hydrocarbons, and the façade of a democratic political system—beginning to crumble. Despite the lack of attention in Western media, Algeria is undergoing what could be viewed as a pre-revolt stage, as the state faces simultaneous security, social, and political challenges.

As preparations continue for an international conference aimed at jump-starting intra-Syrian negotiations to be held in Geneva in mid-June, the prospective value of the initiative is increasingly in doubt. Bashar al-Assad is making it clear to the news media that he intends to stay on and run for president in 2014, something that cannot happen if the June 2012 Geneva formula is implemented faithfully and accurately by Syrian negotiators.

It is likely that every American president since George Washington has joked with his advisers that he would love to have the absolute power wielded by some of his fellow world leaders. With such authority, he could deal decisively with pesky domestic critics, unruly media, or noisy civil society groups. Occasionally a president has imposed emergency laws (Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt), carried out "dirty tricks" against critics (Richard Nixon), or stretched the rules of domestic surveillance (George W. Bush).

Arguments that the West should avoid arming Syrian rebels in order to forestall wholesale slaughter or forced exile of Alawites, such as that advanced recently by Joshua Landis, deserve careful consideration and also need to be placed into proper context.

Early this week, the world looked to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a response to the bombings in Reyhanli that killed 47 people and left more than 100 wounded. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Turkey since the 2003 Istanbul bombings, shocking the nation and fueling anxiety over the war in neighboring Syria.