Open Dialogue Research Journal
As of August 2026, Syria’s government under President Ahmed Al-Sharaa appears considerably stronger than it did after Bashar al-Assad’s fall in December 2024. Damascus controls most major cities, has recovered important oil and gas fields, secured sanctions relief, joined the international coalition against “Islamic State” and established working relationships with […]
Tens of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of Madrid on Saturday in one of the largest anti-government protests Spain has seen in recent years, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez amid mounting corruption scandals and growing political polarization. The rally, called the “March for Dignity”, brought together […]
Syria’s war has changed shape, but it has not disappeared. The country is no longer living through the same battlefield map that defined the Assad years, yet the forces that once tore it apart are still active beneath the surface: armed fragmentation, sectarian fear, economic despair, foreign rivalry, and the […]
They’re not the same thing, unlike what many might think, and the difference is important. Reports indicate that Russia has withdrawn from three bases in Northeastern Mali, which the local Tuareg call Azawad, after the offensive by “Azawad Liberation Front” (FLA) Tuareg separatists and al-Qaeda-affiliated “Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin” (JNIM) radical […]
The growing Israeli-Turkish rivalry might soon expand to Jordan. Turkiye, Syria, and Jordan signed a trilateral MoU in early April on transport cooperation that followed their meeting more than half a year prior last September where they first committed to reviving the Hejaz Railway. This late-Ottoman project connected Istanbul with Medina and Mecca but […]
They’re all connected to its role in jointly building the “New Syria”. Syrian President Ahmed “Jolani” al-Sharaa’s second trip to Moscow in several months was widely interpreted as having to do with the future of Russia’s air and naval bases there. That may be true, especially since they play a practically irreplaceable logistical role […]
One year after the fall of Syria’s old regime, the country remains shrouded in what military theorists once called the “fog of war” – a condition of uncertainty, incomplete information, and contradictory interpretations. External observers, diplomats, journalists, and analysts offer sharply divergent assessments of what has emerged in Damascus since […]
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 […]
The great investigative journalist Max Blumenthal has extensive personal experience and contacts in Venezuela (including with top figures in its Government), and provides in the following video interview of Blumenthal by Mario Nawfal, a breathtaking backgrounder for Trump’s current efforts to grab Venezuela for the benefit of America’s billionaires. It’s […]
Peter Haenseler (whom I normally don’t even mention because he doesn’t link to or otherwise cite any sources) presented a fascinating hypothesis to explain why Trump stole Venezuela: The world is selling US bonds and America is running out of money – it’s as simple as that. With the oil that the […]
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