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The international community is failing Syria, again
A view through the lens of systems theory
Assad is gone and the Geneva process is history. Yet the international governance system that failed Syria for more than a decade has largely survived by adapting itself to a new diplomatic script while leaving its underlying incentive structures intact. Beneath the rhetoric of a new beginning, its business as usual, with many of the shortcomings that characterised international engagement before Assad’s fall persisting, regardless of where one stands on Syria’s new authorities.
30. August 2026
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Damascus is misreading Israel’s motives in Syria
Israel’s conduct is driven by competing impulses – and Damascus is responding to the wrong ones
Israel’s conduct in Syria since the fall of Assad is commonly described as a “strategy,” or at least a “policy.” It is neither. It is a disorganised product of several impulses, some of them in tension with one another: the trauma of October 7th, a near-total ignorance about the group now ruling Damascus, hubris, genuine solidarity with the Druze, Netanyahu’s domestic political needs, and practices of occupation imported from the West Bank. Distinguishing between these drivers matters, because successfully handling Israeli conduct requires understanding its internal logic, and recognising which motivations are fixed and which may shift with a new government in Jerusalem..
16. August 2026