Syria's future is not being decided in Damascus alone. It is being shaped in Suwayda, in Ankara, in Tel Aviv, in the northeast, and in Doha and Moscow as much as in Washington.

Ending a war and shaping what comes after are two entirely different undertakings — and the second demands as much strategy as the first.

Fifty-seven percent of young Europeans say they prefer democracy. Twenty-one percent say they would support an authoritarian government under certain circumstances. Only 6% believe their political system is currently functioning well. These are the results of a survey of 6,703 young people across seven European countries conducted in 2024. The preference for democracy is becoming more conditional, and the electoral consequences are already visible.

The debate surrounding Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency has raised a concern in global politics: whether alliances can remain effective when their principal anchor increasingly approaches them as transactional arrangements rather than strategic commitments. For investors, policymakers, and multilateral actors, this is less a question of leadership style than of systemic resilience. Recent remarks by Finnish President Alexander Stubb, in conversation with Foreign A