Explanation:
Ten years since protesters in Syria first demonstrated against the four-decade rule of the Assad family, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and some twelve million people—more than half the country’s prewar population—have been displaced. The country has descended into an ever more complex civil war: jihadis promoting a Sunni theocracy have eclipsed opposition forces fighting for a democratic and pluralistic Syria, and regional powers have backed various local forces to advance their geopolitical interests on Syrian battlefields. The United States is at the forefront of a coalition conducting air strikes on the self-proclaimed Islamic State, though it abruptly pulled back some of its forces in 2019 ahead of an invasion of northern Syria by Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally. The Turks have pushed Kurdish forces, the United States’ main local partner in the fight against the Islamic State, from border areas. Russia, too, has carried out air strikes in Syria, coming to the Assad regime’s defense, while Iranian forces and their Hezbollah allies have done the same on the ground.
Syria likely faces years of instability. Hopes for regime change have largely died out, and peace talks have been fruitless. The government has regained control of most of the country, and Assad’s hold on power seems secure. But Turkish forces remain entrenched in the north, and pockets of northeastern Syria are either under the control of Kurdish forces or go ungoverned. Meanwhile, the Syrian people are suffering an economic crisis.
