That wars end very differently to our own expectations – or our plans – was established long ago. Because “we” won the Second World War did not mean that the Americans would win the Vietnam war, or that France would vanquish its enemies in Algeria. Yet the moment we decide who the good...

Last Sunday in northeast Syria was a day fraught with geopolitical symbolism. As Russian forces raised their flag over a former school that had been used by American troops in the town of Ain Issa, about 100 miles to the east on the M4 highway a U.S. patrol watched as Turkish or Turkish-backed...

Islamic State (IS) group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was found and killed over the weekend in northern Syria just a few miles from the Turkish border in a US raid that evaded the Turkey’s Incirlik base, in a sign of the increasing distrust between US and Turkish militaries. The...

President Trump is renewing his push for U.S. control of Syrian oil. But experts say there's not much oil there, and what there is belongs to the Syrian government. Still, the idea of controlling the oil fields is one that has long appealed to Trump. And it may provide a rationale for...