Getting to Negotiations on Syria

November 6th, 2016 | http://lobelog.com/getting-to-negotiations-on-syria/#more-36523

by Paul R. Pillar Even some observers of the war in Syria who have wisely given up the idea of forcibly destroying the Assad regime still argue that greater force, including U.S. military force, should be used to induce that regime to negotiate a settlement of the war.  Stated that simply—as it often is—the argument reflects misunderstanding, in at least two important respects, of how the military status of a war relates to opening negotiations for a peace.
First, a peace negotiation requires at least two parties.  Both sides in a war need to see an advantage in negotiating rather than not negotiating, and they need to see it at the same time.  This fact certainly is pertinent to conflict in Syria; opposition forces have used as much uncompromising language as has the regime in expressing ambitions of achieving military victory.  The military situation in Syria will be conducive to negotiation if both the opposition and the regime, and their external backers, have dropped any such ambitions and have reason to negotiate seriously and to make concessions about the future political shape of Syria.  It’s not a matter of killing dreams of victory on just one side. http://lobelog.com/getting-to-negotiations-on-syria/#more-36523