Stephen Starr

2 articles

A Turkish Helping Hand

There’s been much focus on religious-motivated violence by Al Qaeda-linked groups, Jabhat al-Nusra and others in Syria, and rightly so. However, other elements deserve consideration to offer a fuller understanding of the Syrian conflict. Over the past four decades, the Assad regime, under Hafez and

Courting Trouble

Since the government forces were forced from much of north and eastern Syria, Islamic courts have emerged to take up the administrative baton of governing and regulating those towns and communities. But a look at how the Ba’athist state governed the country for over four decades offers an alte