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Solving the Humanitarian Crisis in Syria Requires a Goldilocks Approach
Ten years after the Arab Spring, Syria is still in the midst of a civil war and shows no signs of slowing down. During the Arab Spring, a series of pro-democracy uprisings across several Arabic-speaking countries, governments across North Africa and the Middle East collapsed and saw regime change. Citizens in Syria became emboldened and sought democratic accountability of their president, Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian protestors called for the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but he refused to relinquish power. Instead, Syrian troops opened fire on peaceful protestors, leading to the outbreak of a full-blown civil war. Ten years later, the Syrian civil war shows no signs of ending, and Assad’s regime still holds control of most of the country.
The picture of Syria is grim, and as pointed out during a briefing by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres said, “Syria has fallen off the front page. And yet the situation remains a living nightmare.”
As a result of being caught in the middle of this living nightmare, millions of Syrians have fled their homes, become internally displaced in their own country, and hundreds of thousands have died. These figures do not include the countless number of Syrians who remain illegally detained, disappeared, or living…
