The SAIS Review of International Affairs
Zoe H. Robbin is a Fulbright research fellow in Amman, Jordan. She co-leads Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen Diplomacy Working Group. The views expressed here do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the US Department of State, or any of its partner organizations. Zoe tweets at @zoe_robbin. Zeid Qiblawi is a social researcher […]
Retired Army Colonel Fitz Fitzpatrick discusses the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defense Policy and the EU’s efforts to address crises in Libya, Ukraine and Syria. He argues that the EU has struggled to establish foreign and defense policies that are independent from the United States, and only an existential crisis will push the EU to fulfill its potential as an actor on the world stage.
In the Spring of 2011, the world watched as a generation of Tunisians and Egyptians took to the streets in revolutions that eventually toppled the regimes against which they were protesting. The Arab Spring uprisings spread across the Middle East and eventually into Syria where protestors have been met by the resolute and armed conviction of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad that he will not be removed from power. Over 7,000 people have so far died in the Syrian uprising; in the city of Homs the sidewalks run red with blood.