Category: ethnic
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Jihadists Threaten Stability in post-Assad Syria
March 23, 2026. In early March 2025, clashes broke out between Assad loyalists and Syrian security forces in the coastal region of Latakia. However, after initially beginning as an attack on state forces, the clashes triggered a much larger sectarian conflict, leading to the massacre of approximately 1,000 Alawites, most of them civilians.[1] The attack…
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Analyzing the December 2025 Terrorist Attack in Palmyra, Syria
March 16, 2026. On December 19, 2025, the United States military began Operation Hawkeye Strike, a series of large-scale airstrikes against ISIS weapons sites and infrastructure in Syria. While the operation was aimed at disabling and preventing a resurgence of ISIS, Secretary Hegseth stated that it was “not the beginning of a war,” but instead…
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Clashes in Syria Threaten ISIS Prisons and U.S Strategy
January 25, 2026. Recent clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian government have disrupted operations and security at prisons holding ISIS fighters in northeastern Syria. As the Damascus government continued its offensive to annex parts of northeastern Syria, the SDF withdrew, abandoning control over prison facilities such as the al-Hol camp. In…
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Fragile Integration: The SDF, State Consolidation, and U.S. Counter-ISIS Strategy in Post-Assad Syria
January 19, 2026. Aleppo Escalation and the Failure of Integration The January 6 clashes in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods marked the most serious confrontation between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led SDF since the fall of the Assad regime. After several days of fighting, the SDF withdrew its forces from Aleppo on January…
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The Islamic State in a Jihadi-Led Syria: Rethinking a U.S-Syria Foreign Policy
April 13, 2025. Emerging from the instability created by the invasion of Iraq and the Arab Spring, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, more commonly called the Islamic State or ISIS, was able to conquer large amounts of territory in Syria and Iraq, ruling over a population of 12 million people at its height…
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Past, Present, and Future of Ethnic-Fueled Political Turmoil in Bosnia
March 30, 2025. Bosnia and Herzegovina, a culturally rich and diverse country, has long struggled with the complexities brought by its multi-ethnic makeup and opposing political factions. Unearthed by the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, ethnic tensions in Bosnia and the entirety of former Yugoslavia erupted, creating various armed conflicts. Today, tensions…