Washington, D.C. — The recent expansion of U.S. military action to degrade and destroy the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, into Syria has raised questions about the broader U.S. policy for that country. In a column published today, Center for American Progress scholars argue that the United States should reject regime change through direct military action and prioritize finding a pathway toward a political settlement of the Syrian civil war as a core part of the long-term anti-ISIS campaign. This requires a freeze in the civil war in order to reinvigorate the peace talks that collapsed in Geneva earlier this year.
“The administration is taking a deliberate approach to a very complex problem, focusing first on striking ISIS and helping Iraq,” said Vikram Singh, CAP Vice President for National Security and International Policy. “A political process in Syria is the only approach that can prevent the even greater chaos and violence that would ensue from regime collapse and the only way to ultimately close the space for terrorist groups such as ISIS to operate. It has to be a priority of the anti-ISIS coalition.”
Click here to read the column.
For more information on this topic, contact Tom Caiazza at 202.481.7141 or [email protected].
###