Syria's Fragile Future

WAMU 88.5

Published March 21, 2018 at 11:06 AM EDT

Civilians, fleeing the city of Afrin in northern Syria, are seen arriving in the village of az-Ziyarah, in the government-controlled part of the northern Aleppo province, on March 19, 2018.

Eight years ago in Syria, before the war there broke out, locals complained about government corruption, high rates of unemployment and restrictions on their political freedoms under President Bashar al-Assad. It was fertile and fragile ground for conflict, but why more so than other Arab nations where activist uprisings led to hope for democracy?

More than 465,000 Syrians have lost their lives in the civil war since then. More than a million have been injured. And more than 12 million have been displaced from their homes.

What should the international response be at this point in the conflict? And is there a way to identify and protect other vulnerable regions from this scale of violence?

This conversation was part of an event co-hosted by America Abroad at the United States Institute of Peace

GUESTS

Nancy Lindborg, President, United States Institute of Peace; @nancylindborg

Kimberly Kagan, President of the Institute for the Study of War in Washington; affiliate of the Olin Institute of Strategic Studies at Harvard University; author, “The Eye of Command”; @TheStudyofWar

Ilan Goldenberg, Director, Middle East Security Program, Center for a New American Security; @ilangoldenberg

Omar Ahmed Abenza, Head of mission for northwest Syria, Doctors Without Borders

For more, visit https://the1a.org.