US policy in Syria is full of holes without a strategic plan for once the mission to defeat ISIS concludes.

An attack by a swarm of drones shows Russia’s fight in Syria is far from over.

Vladimir Putin is burnishing his strong-man image but Russian forces are still in Syria.

Unrest plays into Russia’s geopolitical vision, yet Moscow has now assumed the obligation to provide a stable Syrian government.

Foreign fighters who join armed Kurdish groups become hostage to their political agenda.

America’s strategy of ‘building partner capacity’ is beginning to show its weaknesses.

Countries that supported the regime will have the inside running for reconstruction contracts.

There is a sense that the Syrian war is effectively over bar the fighting.

If Assad's forces are re-imposing central control while defeating Islamic State, there's not much Washington can do about it.

A deal involving several hundred Islamic State fighters who vacated the rugged Lebanese-Syrian border area is yet another example, if any more were needed, of how complex this conflict remains.

Has Syria been chemically disarmed?

The only person responsible for the death of his children was Khalid Sharrouf himself.

The CIA program was trying to apply just enough pressure while also accounting for all weapons, even though it didn’t control them: it was too big an ask.

The announcement yesterday implies that Australia has decided it no longer has the political will to apply air power in the fight against ISIS in Syria.

little consideration was given to what US position would be in relation to the SDF when the Syrian government tries to reassert sovereignty in areas cleared of IS.

The US presence is tactical and temporary, a fact fully appreciated by those who are there for the long term.

On the one hand any agreement that brings relief to Syria's civilians should be supported. But the lack of trust between sides has not disappeared.

The IIIM is not is not a panacea. Its tasks are very specific. Nation states now have to step up to the plate.

The world should expect that Syria will continue to use its remaining chemical weapons against its populace, whenever it chooses and with relative impunity.

Trump has set the boundaries back to what they have traditionally been, and put Russia and Iran on notice that Washington's patience has run out.

The only response that will matter to Assad is that which comes from Moscow and Tehran.

It's worth considering how successful Assad’s ‘wait it out’ strategy has been by examining the fate of some of the world leaders who have called for his removal over the years.

The more heavily populated areas are either under Syrian government or Islamist opposition control who won't be parties to ceasefires that aren't to their advantage.

There is great potential for conflict and collision in the increasingly crowded battlespace in northern Syria.

The most difficult aspect of the Raqqa operation is not the seizure of the city but the post-seizure governance.

Russian and Iranian sunk costs in maintaining the Assad regime in Syria are significant, while Washington's are minimal.

Every armed group that is not Islamic State can be considered moderate in the context of Syria, but radical to the West.

Australia will face some difficult choices in Syria with the next US administration.

Both sides of the conflict understand the Western news cycle and try to use it to their advantage by providing their own version of events.

The course of the civil war changed dramatically in the last 12 months.

Why didn’t the world’s media shift some focus onto the armed groups inside Aleppo and ask what they were achieving by being there?

The gradual isolation and strangulation of Aleppo is part of a much broader strategy that has taken shape over the past year.

Rebel forces are losing and need to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis.

Raqqa is going nowhere and we ignore it at our peril.

Getting the US and Russia to work together in Syria was always going to be difficult. Now it looks as though a diplomatic solution was from the start a mirage at best and a trick at worst.