Robert Kagan and Senator John McCain during the question and answer session following
McCain's speech at the Brookings Institution, June 6, 2013 - Photo by Paul Morigi
On June 6, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered his first public remarks on his recent trip to Syria, the ongoing civil war there, and U.S. policy toward the wider Middle East. McCain detailed how he thinks the United States should approach the Syria conflict and secure its interests in the volatile Middle East region.
Last month, McCain became the highest-ranking U.S. official to enter Syria since the bloody civil war began there more than two years ago. Spillover from the conflict increasingly threatens to destabilize Syria’s neighbors. Hezbollah fighters are now battling alongside troops loyal to the Assad regime, fighting has spread into Lebanon, and orthodox Sunni clerics have escalated the sectarian tensions into calls for a new jihad. Many question whether the United States should lead the international community in a determined effort to ensure Bashar al-Assad’s ouster as soon as possible—but the question remains: what might Syria and the region look like after multinational intervention? What might intervention mean for the confrontation over Iran’s nuclear weapons, and for efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict?
The Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings hosted Senator McCain on the heels of his trip to the region (which included stops in Jordan, Turkey and Yemen). Brookings Senior Fellow
Robert Kagan moderated the discussion and Vice President
Martin Indyk, director of Foreign Policy, provided introductory remarks.
Follow the conversation on Twitter at
#SenMcCain.