The collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s rule is an opportunity for the United States to overhaul its bankrupt Syria policy. The U.S. should have abandoned this policy years earlier, but now there are no longer any pretexts for continuing the collective punishment of the Syrian people and the illegal American military presence on Syrian soil. The time has come for rapid sanctions relief and immediate withdrawal of American forces. The U.S. must finally leave Syria alone. U.S. troops currently in Syria have no good reason to be there. Successive administrations have kept troops in Syria in the name...

President-elect Donald Trump has named Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida as his incoming National Security Advisor, continuing his streak of choosing some of the most hardline men in the Republican Party to run his foreign policy. Waltz may not be as well-known as John Bolton or Michael Flynn, but he has an extremely hawkish record that includes his effort to restart the war in Afghanistan and his sponsorship of a resolution to authorize starting a new conflict against cartels in Mexico. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan himself, Waltz opposed the withdrawal in 2021, and if he had his way the...

No matter who wins the presidential election next month, American policy towards Iran seems likely to remain extremely hostile and confrontational. Both campaigns seem determined to out-hawk each other. The Iran policy debate in Washington, such as it is, is focused entirely on the same bankrupt coercive measures of sanctions, threats, and military action that are guaranteed to make things worse. There is no serious discussion of reducing tensions or resuming negotiations in the new year. The persistence of this failed hawkish consensus is dangerous for the United States, Iran, and the wider...

The Joe Biden administration claims to be pushing for a “temporary ceasefire” between Israel and Hezbollah to avert a larger conflict, but this is very late in the day and it is not a serious effort to prevent a new war in Lebanon. It is at best a desperate, last-minute exercise in going through the motions of diplomacy. The administration would like to pretend that it is a passive bystander pleading from the sidelines instead of the chief patron and arms supplier of the main belligerent in the conflict, and it designs its entreaties to be toothless so that Israel can safely ignore them. The...