Open Dialogue Research Journal
After months of skirmishes and mutual accusations, the militants, formally structured into the Syrian armed forces and the Kurdish militia in the northeast of the country (Rojava region by the Kurdish definition), known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, turned to intense fighting that happened last weekend. Pretty quickly, the Kurds […]
Part I Regional backers (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey) moved quickly to lobby for sanctions relief, portraying the new Syrian authorities as pragmatic partners. Washington, however, adopted a more transactional approach. Rather than offering relief as a reward for regime change, the United States sought to make Damascus “earn” normalization. […]
Donald Trump’s Board of Peace overseeing the reconstruction of Gaza was always going to raise a host of niggling questions. From the outset, the US President made it clear he would be the helmsman of what was essentially an outfit of selected corporate overseers tilling the soil for The Donald’s […]
What matters peace if it permits killing, maiming and destroying the infrastructure of a society supposedly once at war? This is the situation facing Gaza as the occupying Israeli forces go about their business making the Strip even more uninhabitable for the Palestinian residents, ensuring that that land will be […]
International law likes to speak about principles, but it prefers silence when those principles are violated by the very power that claims authorship over them. The recent episode involving Venezuela has become yet another illustration of this long-standing reality: in a world governed by the “rule of the strong,” norms […]
The images and reports emerging from Iran are grim and unsettling. Hundreds killed, thousands arrested, the internet cut, and streets filled with fear and anger. It is both morally necessary and human to feel concern for ordinary Iranians caught between economic hardship, political repression, and geopolitical confrontation. But concern must […]
The protests unfolding in Iran have triggered a familiar cycle of headlines, speculation, and political projection in Western media. Claims of imminent regime collapse, dramatic comparisons to 1979, and confident predictions of a “new Iran” circulate widely. Yet beneath this noise lies a far more complex and uncertain reality. Disinformation […]
Tensions are growing between Turkiye-Pakistan and Israel-Cyprus-Greece. Stability in the Eastern Mediterranean can no longer be taken for granted as a result of three recent developments: 1) the growing Turkish-Israeli rivalry in post-Assad Syria; 2) Israel’s reported plans to establish a rapid response force with Cyprus and Greece; and 3) Turkish ally Pakistan’s new military […]
Is Somaliland Not a Country? [Editor’s Note: Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center in Washington and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly magazine.] Israel is on the hot seat. Not for Gaza, or Iran, or even for attacks on Syria or Lebanon. No, Israel is on the hot […]
As of December 31, 2025, Syria and Israel have not signed a peace treaty following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. While negotiations for a security agreement advanced significantly earlier in the year, with U.S. mediation under President Trump playing a key role, talks have stalled due […]
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