Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 06/2014

The Assad Regime Winning by Inches?

Jeffrey White

March 2014

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Abstract

The regime's recent military successes are by no means sweeping, but its incremental gains in Aleppo and Damascus belie perceptions of stalemate and could shift the war's direction in its favor. The fighting in Syria is frequently described as either a stalemate or a war of attrition -- there are few dramatic movements and no decisive actions, even though both sides repeatedly declare that they are winning and the other side is losing. And some have suggested that there is "no military solution."