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When the United States says "jump," Syria says....

So the big Middle East news this AM is that the Obama administration has explicitly called for Syrian leader Bashir Assad to leave power.  The White House blog has the full text of Obama's statement....

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Stupidest. Sanctions. Ever.

The nasty piece of work that is the Syrian regime has been amping up the repression of its own population as well as its overseas diaspora.  What can be done about it?  Well, this is a purely...

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The new equation for overthrowing resource-rich dictators

The Washington Post's Liz Sly has been doing some excellent reporting on the ground in Syria, and her latest report suggests that the latest batch of sanctions are starting to hurt Syria badly:  The...

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The Great and All Powerful United States

Yesterday I appeared on TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin to discuss Niall Ferguson's latest book, which argues that the West in general and the United States in particular is losing its mojo.  The...

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Write Sergei Lavrov's outgoing voicemail message!

As both the unrest and crackdown in Syria continue to get worse, Russia has steadfastly stood by the side of the Assad regime. Matters are coming to a head in Turtle Bay, however, as James Blitz and...

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I don't think Bashar Assad can see his shadow

The AP breathlessly reports that Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow today, which means another six weeks of winter.  Based on recent data, I'm wondering if Syria's Bashar al-Assad can say the same thing....

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When the nastiest option is also the least terrible option

The New Republic has assembled a symposium on what the United States should do about Syria.  Among others, contributors will include Larry Diamond, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and... er... me: The New...

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Dear realists: please explain Russia

In my experience, American realists just love the heck out of Russia.  Go scan The National Interest and inevitably you'll see the most charitable of interpretations about Russian behavior.  As near...

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The limits of compellence in Syria

As events in Syria unravel, there is a growing concern that Syrian despot Bashar Assad will use his chemical weapons arsenal to punish those rising up against him in a desperate bid to stay in power....

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The Syria policy that dare not speak its name

Your humble blogger is on vacation at an undisclosed location, so blogging will provoke some nasty looks from my family be a bit lighter for the next ten days or so.  So, alas, I will miss a couple of...

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Introducing the Drezner Intelligence Explainer

David Sanger and Eric Schmitt have a story in today's New York Times about... well, as near as I can figure, the purpose of the story is that the intelligence comnunity wants to communicate with the...

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Top ten signs that your authoritarian regime is in trouble

Ellen Barry reports in the New York Times that the Russians see the handwriting on the wall in Syria:  Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia's top envoy for Syria, said on Thursday that...

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Obama's revealed foreign policy preferences

The New Republic has relaunched in style, featuring a spiffy new website and a sitdown interview with President Barack Obama.  Alas, much of the interview was about internal GOP politics.  Only the...

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How Syria didn't ruin the Arab Spring

Your humble blogger has been traveling a lot, so it was only this a.m. that I got around to reading Marc Lynch's blog post on "How Syria Ruined the Arab Spring."  It's pretty gripping stuff: [T]he...

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How to lose a foreign-policy debate that you could win

As someone who is pretty friggin' wary about the use of American force in Syria, and as someone who does not shy away from snark in the blogosphere, I found Steve Walt's top ten warning signs of...

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Why Obama is arming Syria's rebels: it's the realism, stupid.

Red line!!  RED LINE!!!  RED LINE!!!!: The Obama administration, concluding that the troops of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria have used chemical weapons against rebel forces in his country’s civil...

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A gruesome test of realpolitik in Syria

With FP's David Kenner reporting that the Assad regime used chemical weapons against its own civilian population, we're already seeing a debate about what to do now.  Over at Duck of Minerva, Dan...

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When twerking "crowds out" the Syria debate....

As the United States starts signaling that hostile action will likely be taken towards the Syrian government, I've seen a few laments today that not enough attention is being paid to that fact....

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Why Obama needs to choose whether he's a liberal or a realist on Syria

As BuzzFeed's Miriam Elder has chronicled, the foreign policy community ain't too happy with Obama right now.  Your humble blogger hasn't been quite as unhappy, but that's mostly because I've been...

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International lawyers give it the old college try

So Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro -- professors of international law at Yale University -- have an op-ed in today's New York Times in which they say... pretty much what you'd expect professors of...

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