A Very Long and Nasty Fight

Posted: March 17th, 2017

By Aaron Stein

Aaron Stein is a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. His research interests include US-Turkey relations, Turkish foreign policy, the Syrian conflict, nonproliferation, and the Iranian nuclear program. Dr. Stein was previously a doctoral fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy, an associate fellow for the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and a researcher with the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM). He also worked as a consultant for the International Crisis Group in Istanbul and has published articles and reports on Turkey's nuclear capabilities and Turkish elections. Dr. Stein holds a BA in politics from the University of San Francisco and an MA in international policy studies from Monterey Institute of International Studies. Dr. Stein received his PhD in Middle East and Mediterranean studies at Kings College, London. He is proficient in Turkish and has elementary knowledge of Arabic and French.

As Iraqi forces close in on ISIS fighters stranded in eastern Mosul – the group’s last urban bastion in Iraq – U.S.-backed Syrian rebels are simultaneously closing in on Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State. Supported by coalition weapons, airstrikes, military advisers, and now several hundred U.S. Marines, the U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have advanced to within 50 kilometers of Raqqa. However, challenges, both tactical and political, remain ahead. The Cipher Brief’s Fritz Lodge spoke with Aaron Stein, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, to investigate both the make-up of the forces advancing on Raqqa, and the strategic and political hurdles that will need to be overcome to finally eject ISIS from its symbolic capital in Syria.

The Cipher Brief: What is the current status of the U.S.-backed campaign to take Raqqa [Operation Wrath of Euphrates]? Who are the major Syrian and coalition players, and how far has the operation progressed?

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