One week ago, Secretary of State
John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed upon a bilateral
cease-fire agreement for the Syrian civil war. When the cease-fire went into
effect this past Monday, the pact marked the fifth such attempt (and the third
made by Kerry and Lavrov) to attenuate the sanguinary conflict and push
stability into a brutal war-zone.
While the attempts to quell the
conflict (even temporarily) are perhaps admirable, it is evident that Moscow has
no interest in resolution. After all, the Russians see any possible conclusion
to the civil war as involving the abdication of the Al-Assad regime, in which
they have invested heavily. But, the Russians also hope to continue the
conflict in order to accomplish their strategic goals in the region. But what
are these interests, and what do they mean for American foreign policy?
