August 24 - Will Syria Be Next Now That the U.S. Says It Will Not Be Restricted by Borders?; The Author of "Will the Middle East Implode?"; Putin Increases Military Pressure of Ukraine Short of an Invasion

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the announcement by the Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes Friday that the U.S. will not be restricted by borders in going after the Islamic State and speak with an expert on Syria, Henri Barkey, who served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and has an article at Foreign Affairs, “On-Again, Off-Again Alliance”. We discuss the de-facto alliance with Syria’s Assad shaping up if the U.S. starts bombing ISIL in Syria, and the different approach the French take in paying ransom for the release of their hostages held by terrorists.

Part 2

Then we go to Turkey and speak with Mohammed Ayoob, the University Distinguished Professor of International Relations at Michigan State University and author of the new book “Will the Middle East Implode?" We discuss the extent to which Turkey has buyer’s remorse after having helped create ISIL in Syria, particularly now that the Islamic State fighters are threatening to exterminate Iraqi Turkmen in the besieged city of Amerli that has seriously alarmed the United Nations special representative for Iraq who has asked the international community to take immediate action to avoid a massacre of civilians who have been under siege for two months without food and water.

Part 3

Then finally, we look into the resolve of the Ukrainians to fight the war that their new president Petro Poroshenko declared on Independence Day August 24, has “turned into a real war, albeit an undeclared one”. Taras Kuzio, a leading international expert on contemporary Ukrainian and post-Communist politics, nationalism and European Integration at the Center for Political and Regional Studies in the Canadian Institute for Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, joins us to discuss the upcoming talks in Belarus between Poroshenko and Putin, who is increasing military pressure on Ukraine, just short of an all-out invasion.