Robert Ford

I am reading many analyses of the geostrategic implications of the war in Ukraine and its economic impact around the world. Unfortunately, there is no serious discussion yet about the negative consequences from the Ukraine crisis on refugees and displaced people in the Middle East, especially Syria…

American policy on Ukraine comes from mixing analytical thinking among the national security experts with emotions among the American public that influence politicians. On the analytical side, there was an argument among experts and officials about whether the expansion of NATO to former Communist…

I don’t know if Russia will in the end invade Ukraine or not. I do know that if it does, it will start a new cold war and it will affect the world economy in a big way. Here are three big consequences that are coming. First, the Ukraine invasion will formally start a new cold war between…

Thirty-one years after the liberation of Kuwait, many people still think America undertook that operation because of oil. Richard Haas who was the top Middle East official at the White House in his memoirs recalled that President Bush the father threw Iraqi forces out of Kuwait not because of oil…

It is easy to welcome the decision of the court in Koblenz that convicted Anwar Raslan of responsibility for torture, rape and murder at Branch 251 in Damascus. When I was ambassador in Damascus I heard from Syrians about several detention centers, among them Branch 251. We knew intellectually…

In 2021 I saw many people claim that the United States will abandon the Middle East. This is ridiculous. The United States is staying in the Middle East, as analyst Dalia Kaye from the University of California in Los Angeles wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine a month ago. The Biden administration…

Critics of the Biden administration last summer said the withdrawal from Afghanistan would destroy American credibility and encourage America’s rivals to take bolder actions that would challenge America and its friends. Is reduced American credibility the reason for new tensions in Ukraine and…

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finally got his meeting with Joe Biden last Sunday after the Americans had postponed it for several days. Erdogan said in September that he did not have good relations with Biden and the bilateral relationship between their countries was not healthy. Biden…

The news in America has been bad for President Biden for weeks. He promised to rebuild America and to bring experts to his administration who know how to manage government offices wisely, unlike the Trump team which brought chaos all the time. What we have seen in recent weeks is chaos in the…

Two Syrian delegations visited Washington last week. They don’t share a vision for solving the Syrian war and they met Americans but they didn’t meet each other. The Syrian National Coalition delegation leader later told Asharq Al-Awsat that there was differentiation in the American treatment of…