Download or read book The Path Forward on U S Syria Policy written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Path Forward Key Findings from the Syria Study Group Report written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Armed Conflict in Syria written by Congressional Research Service and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-07-20 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year, continues to present new challenges for U.S. policymakers. Following a deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria on April 4, 2017, and subsequent U.S. strikes against Syrian military infrastructure and pro-regime forces, Members of Congress have called on the President to consult with Congress about Syria strategy. Other Members have questioned the President's authority to launch strikes against Syria in the absence of specific prior authorization from Congress. In the past, some in Congress have expressed concern about the international and domestic authorizations for such strikes, their potential unintended consequences, and the possibility of undesirable or unavoidable escalation. Since taking office in January 2017, President Trump has stated his intention to "destroy" the Syria- and Iraq-based insurgent terrorist group known as the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL, ISIS, or the Arabic acronym Da'esh), and the President has ordered actions to "accelerate" U.S. military efforts against the group in both countries. In late March, senior U.S. officials signaled that the United States would prioritize the fight against the Islamic State and said that Syrian President Bashar al Asad's future would be determined by the Syrian people. Nevertheless, following the April 4 attack, President Trump and senior members of his Administration have spoken more critically of Asad's leadership, and it remains to be seen whether the United States will more directly seek to compel Asad's departure from power while pursuing the ongoing campaign against the Islamic State. Since late 2015, Asad and his government have leveraged military, financial, and diplomatic support from Russia and Iran to improve and consolidate their position relative to the range of antigovernment insurgents arrayed against them. These insurgents include members of the Islamic State, Islamist and secular fighters, and Al Qaeda-linked networks. While Islamic State forces have lost territory to the Syrian government, to Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups, and to U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters since early 2016, they remain capable and dangerous. The IS "capital" at Raqqah has been isolated, but large areas of central and eastern Syria remain under the group's control. The presence and activities of Russian military forces and Iranian personnel in Syria create complications for U.S. officials and military planners, and raise the prospect of inadvertent confrontation with possible regional or global implications. Since March 2011, the conflict has driven more than 5 million Syrians into neighboring countries as refugees (out of a total prewar population of more than 22 million). More than 6.3 million other Syrians are internally displaced and are among more than 13.5 million Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance. The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to the Syria crisis (which includes assistance to neighboring countries hosting refugees), and since FY2012 has allocated more than $6.5 billion to meet humanitarian needs. In addition, the United States has allocated more than $500 million to date for bilateral assistance programs in Syria, including the provision of nonlethal equipment to select opposition groups. President Trump has requested $191.5 million in FY2018 funding for such assistance and $500 million in FY2018 defense funds to train and equip anti-IS forces in Syria. U.S. officials and Members of Congress continue to debate how best to pursue U.S. regional security and counterterrorism goals in Syria without inadvertently strengthening U.S. adversaries or alienating U.S. partners. The Trump Administration and Members of the 115th Congress-like their predecessors-face challenges inherent to the simultaneous pursuit of U.S. nonproliferation, counterterrorism, civilian protection, and stabilization goals in a complex, evolving conflict.

Download or read book U S Policy Toward Syria written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Syria the United States and the War on Terror in the Middle East written by Robert G. Rabil and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-02-28 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since Syria won its independence from France in 1946, it has been a crucial player in Middle Eastern politics. Over the years, relations between the United States and Syria have fluctuated as Washington has tried to balance its commitment to Israel's security with its support for Arab regimes in order to protect vital and strategic interests in the Arab world. The Arab-Israeli conflict is, however. no longer the only focal point of the relationship. Now, terrorism has entered the fray. On the State Department's terrorism list since 1979, Syria became even more persona non grata as far as Washington was concerned when Damascus vocally opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The American war in Iraq, occupation, and promotion of democracy throughout the Middle East pose a strong challenge to the Syrian regime. The new Syrian leadership, in power only since 2000, faces immense challenges—protecting Syria's regional status and surviving internal and external threats. Against this background, Syria and the United States have set themselves on a collision course over terrorism, arms proliferation, Lebanon, the Middle East peace process, and Iraq. Syria is, nevertheless, extremely important to the United States, because it can be a force for either stability or instability in an extremely volatile region. Recent events have put the spotlight on Syria's policies and actions. After the assassination of a Lebanese politician, protests in Lebanon led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops. While the withdrawal averted an immediate threat of bloodshed, the Bush administration accused Syria of being a source of instability in the Middle East, with Secretary of State Rice charging that Syria was still active in Lebanon and was supporting foreign terrorists fueling the insurgency in Iraq. The U.S.-Syrian relationship is of critical importance to the United States' efforts to promote democracy throughout the Middle East. At the same time, the United States has been pressuring Syria to clamp down on terrorism within its own borders. Rabil provides a history of the modern U.S.-Syrian relationship, putting the latest events in the context of this contemporary history, and placing the relationship in the context of Middle Eastern politics.

Download or read book The Iraq Study Group Report written by Iraq Study Group (U.S.) and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2006-12-06 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the findings of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which was formed in 2006 to examine the situation in Iraq and offer suggestions for the American military's future involvement in the region.

Download or read book Foreign Policy Begins at Home written by Richard N Haass and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A concise, comprehensive guide to America's critical policy choices at home and overseas . . . without a partisan agenda, but with a passion for solutions designed to restore our country's strength and enable us to lead." -- Madeleine K. Albright A rising China, climate change, terrorism, a nuclear Iran, a turbulent Middle East, and a reckless North Korea all present serious challenges to America's national security. But it depends even more on the United States addressing its burgeoning deficit and debt, crumbling infrastructure, second class schools, and outdated immigration system. While there is currently no great rival power threatening America directly, how long this strategic respite lasts, according to Council on Foreign Relations President Richard N. Haass, will depend largely on whether the United States puts its own house in order. Haass lays out a compelling vision for restoring America's power, influence, and ability to lead the world and advocates for a new foreign policy of Restoration that would require the US to limit its involvement in both wars of choice, and humanitarian interventions. Offering essential insight into our world of continual unrest, this new edition addresses the major foreign and domestic debates since hardcover publication, including US intervention in Syria, the balance between individual privacy and collective security, and the continuing impact of the sequester.

Download or read book Exercise of Power written by Robert M. Gates and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 bestselling memoir, Duty, a candid, sweeping examination of power, and how it has been exercised, for good and bad, by American presidents in the post-Cold War world. Since the end of the Cold War, the global perception of the United States has progressively morphed from dominant international leader to disorganized entity. Robert Gates argues that this transformation is the result of the failure of political leaders to understand the complexity of American power, its expansiveness and its limitations. He makes clear that the successful exercise of power is not limited to the ability to coerce or demand submission, but must also encompass diplomacy, strategic communications, development assistance, intelligence, technology, and ideology. With forthright judgments of the performance of past presidents and their senior-most advisers, insightful ­firsthand knowledge, and compelling insider stories, Gates’s candid, sweeping examination of power in all its manifestations argues that U.S. national security in the future will require abiding by the lessons of the past, reimagining our approach, and revitalizing nonmilitary instruments of power essential to success and security.

Download or read book Syria written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A New Foreign Policy written by Jeffrey D. Sachs and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sobering analysis of American foreign policy under Trump, the award-winning economist calls for a new approach to international engagement. The American Century began in 1941 and ended in 2017, on the day of President Trump’s inauguration. The subsequent turn toward nationalism and “America first” unilateralism did not made America great. It announced the abdication of our responsibilities in the face of environmental crises, political upheaval, mass migration, and other global challenges. As a result, America no longer dominates geopolitics or the world economy as it once did. In this incisive and passionate book, Jeffrey D. Sachs provides the blueprint for a new foreign policy that embraces global cooperation, international law, and aspirations for worldwide prosperity. He argues that America’s approach to the world must shift from military might and wars of choice to a commitment to shared objectives of sustainable development. A New Foreign Policy explores both the danger of the “America first” mindset and the possibilities for a new way forward, proposing timely and achievable plans to foster global economic growth, reconfigure the United Nations for the twenty-first century, and build a multipolar world that is prosperous, peaceful, fair, and resilient.

Download or read book Security Strategies and American World Order written by Birthe Hansen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses security strategies in the American world order, systematically comparing Russian, Middle Eastern and European policies. The main finding is that the loss of relative power has decisive importance for the security strategies of states, but that particular strategies can only be explained when relative power is combined with ideology and the probability of military conflict. Research on the unipolar world order has focused largely on the general dynamics of the system and the actions of the American unipole. By contrast, this book focuses on states that lost out relatively as a consequence of unipolarity, and seeks to explain how this loss has affected their security strategies. Thus, in essence, the book tells ‘the other side of the story’ about the contemporary world order. In addition, it makes an important theoretical contribution by systematically coupling relative ideology and relative security with relative power and exploring their explanatory value. This book will be of great interest to students of international relations, security studies and foreign policy.

Download or read book Donald Trump s New World Order written by T. Hamid Al-Bayati and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donald Trump's New World Order addresses U.S. foreign policy initiatives during Mr. Trump’s Presidency, appeasing traditional enemies such as Russia and undermining allies such as NATO and the European Union. In the book, Ambassador T. Hamid Al-Bayati outlines, region by region, policy by policy, the administration’s misguided, and sometimes corrupt, initiatives and decisions, which could potentially lead to regional conflict and global war. Highlighted within the text are the administration’s relationships and interactions with Russia, China, North Korea, and the Middle East, as well as within the United States. The author’s critical review of Trump’s foreign policy includes the impact of trade wars, military escalation, and changing global relationships, Ambassador Al-Bayati paints a stark picture of the present standing of the U.S. and a dark future that looms on the horizon. Many experts agree that Trump’s foreign policy lacks coordination, consistency, and organization. Trump often contradicts himself and his supporting staff. Concerned Americans and U.S. allies struggle to find coherence in the Trump administration’s foreign policy. It zigs and zags, with senior administration officials saying one thing and President Trump contradicting them without warning the next day. It punishes U.S. allies and coddles U.S. adversaries; it privileges demagogy over democracy. Mr. Trump’s approach appears impulsive, improvisational and inchoate—devoid of clear purpose, values or even ideology. Ambassador Al-Bayati leaves nothing unexplored as he strives to organize and explain the current and future implications of Mr. Trump’s presidency and policy.

Download or read book Losing the Long Game written by Philip H. Gordon and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foreign Affairs Best of Books of 2021 "Book of the Week" on Fareed Zakaria GPS Financial Times Best Books of 2020 The definitive account of how regime change in the Middle East has proven so tempting to American policymakers for decades—and why it always seems to go wrong. "It's a first-rate work, intelligently analyzing a complex issue, and learning the right lessons from history." —Fareed Zakaria Since the end of World War II, the United States has set out to oust governments in the Middle East on an average of once per decade—in places as diverse as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan (twice), Egypt, Libya, and Syria. The reasons for these interventions have also been extremely diverse, and the methods by which the United States pursued regime change have likewise been highly varied, ranging from diplomatic pressure alone to outright military invasion and occupation. What is common to all the operations, however, is that they failed to achieve their ultimate goals, produced a range of unintended and even catastrophic consequences, carried heavy financial and human costs, and in many cases left the countries in question worse off than they were before. Philip H. Gordon's Losing the Long Game is a thorough and riveting look at the U.S. experience with regime change over the past seventy years, and an insider’s view on U.S. policymaking in the region at the highest levels. It is the story of repeated U.S. interventions in the region that always started out with high hopes and often the best of intentions, but never turned out well. No future discussion of U.S. policy in the Middle East will be complete without taking into account the lessons of the past, especially at a time of intense domestic polarization and reckoning with America's standing in world.

Download or read book The Way Forward in the Middle East Peace Process written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Evolution of U S Counterterrorism Policy written by Yonah Alexander and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-12-30 with total page 1451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Including many older documents not available electronically or otherwise accessible, this three-volume set provides the first comprehensive collection of key documents, statements, and testimony on U.S. government counterterrorism policies as they have evolved in the face of the changing terrorist threats. Selected executive and congressional materials highlight the government's diverse policy and program responses to terrorism. The testimony, statements, and documents provide the public articulation and face to the largely important intelligence, law enforcement, preventative security measures, and international cooperation used in the shadowy war against terrorism. Recent entries provide a handy compilation of important post-9/11 materials. For example, useful background information on U.S. actions against Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and Saddam Hussein and terrorism fundraising. Also included are statements from the Reagan and other administrations that relate to disputes over the appropriate use of force. Introductory chapters by Alexander and Kraft provide the historical context and analysis of previous and current U.S. counterterrorism policy including U.S. legislation. For over two centuries, America has faced occasional outbreaks of terrorism, perpetrated by both indigenous and foreign groups. But the spectacular bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the September 11, 2001, attacks seemed to signify a new age, frightening many Americans and destroying their sense of domestic security. In addition, U.S. citizens and interests have been increasingly affected by acts of terrorism abroad. The challenges of terrorism, therefore, have required the United States to develop comprehensive strategies and programs to counter both conventional and unconventional threats, nationally and globally.

Download or read book Frontline Syria written by David L. Phillips and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Syrian regime used sarin and other chemical weapons against dissidents in August 2013, an estimated 1729 people were killed including 400 children. President Barack Obama warned that the use of chemical weapons would constitute a "red line”, but he refused to take military action. Trump's approach has been even more disengaged and lacking in clarity. Frontline Syria highlights America's failure to prevent conflict escalation in Syria. Based on interviews with US officials involved in Syria policy, as well as UN personnel, the book draws conclusions about America's role in world affairs and its potential to prevent deadly conflict. It also highlights the role of front-line states in Syria and other countries who engaged in the Syrian conflict to advance their national interests. Covering key turning points in the Syrian civil war, including the impact of recent decisions by the Trump administration, Frontline Syria critically evaluates America's global power and provides a diplomatic and military history of the conflict. Based on this analysis, the book offers policy recommendations and makes a case for America's future role addressing peace and conflict.

Download or read book The Kurds and US Foreign Policy written by Marianna Charountaki and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-10-18 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a detailed survey and analysis of US–Kurdish relations and their interaction with domestic, regional and global politics. Using the Kurdish issue to explore the nature of the engagement between international powers and weaker non-state entities, the author analyses the existence of an interactive US relationship with the Kurds of Iraq. Drawing on governmental archives and interviews with political figures both in Northern Iraq and the United States, the author places the case study within a broader International Relations context. The conceptual framework centres on the inter-relations between actors (both state and non-state) and structures of material and ideational kinds, while the detailed survey and analysis of US–Kurdish relations, in their interaction with domestic, regional and global politics, forms the empirical core of the study. Stressing the intertwining of domestic and foreign policy as part of the same set of dynamics, the case study explains the emergence of the interactive and institutionalized US relationship with the Kurds of Iraq that has brought about the formation, within an Iraqi framework, of an undeclared US official Kurdish policy in the post-Saddam era. Filling a gap in the literature on US–Kurdish relations as well as the broader topic of International Relations, this book will be of great interest to those in the areas of International Relations, Middle Eastern and Kurdish Politics.