War & Conflict Archive

The death of 71 migrants in a truck in Austria last week and Wednesday’s horrifying photos of a drowned Syrian child on a beach in Turkey have shone a light on the plight of migrants fleeing from war, violence and poverty in Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and elsewhere, as well as Europe’s total inability to coherently address the crisis. In the latest Global Dispatches podcast, host Mark Goldberg speaks with World Politics Review columnist Ellen Laipson about the migrant crisis, the European Union’s infighting over how to handle it and why Syrians are not trying to seek refuge in Gulf countries. […]

On the night of Aug. 28, Turkish fighter jets joined U.S.-led airstrikes against the self-proclaimed Islamic State for the first time, following through on a long-reluctant commitment to fight the brutal jihadi group. But Ankara’s heightened efforts against the Islamic State have hardly been noticed by many people in Turkey, which is grappling with the deadly renewal of its war with Kurdish insurgents in southeastern Turkey as snap elections loom in the fall. For Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the growing chaos comes down to one matter alone: the restoration of single-party rule for his Justice and Development Party (AKP), […]

The late-August headlines have been heartrending, from the continued violence of the Islamic State against both people and cultural patrimony, to stirrings of public discontent and rage over government incompetence in several Arab states. The latest of the summer’s tragedies came last week, when the lifeless bodies of 71 migrants, including four children, were found inside a truck in Austria. The horrific discovery moved the ever-expanding tragedy of illegal migration from war zones into Southern and Eastern Europe back into the spotlight. Although many commentators have pointed the finger at Europe’s institutional failings to manage the migration crisis, much of […]

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s right-wing Radical Party announced that it was leaving the ruling coalition over a bill that would give more power to the country’s regions, including in eastern Ukraine, which is currently controlled by pro-Russian rebels. Russia insisted on the decentralization of power as a condition for the truce that was agreed upon in February between Ukrainian troops and separatist rebels, which has unraveled bit by bit. The bill has sparked controversy across Ukraine and put President Petro Poroshenko in a tight spot. Russian-backed separatists say it does not give them sufficient sovereignty in the east, while nationalists claim […]