Zombie Diplomacy and the Fate of Syria’s Constitutional Committee

In this op-ed for The Brookings Institution, Prof. Steven Heydemann and I call for abandoning Syria's constitutional committee. Undermined by the obstructionism of the Assad regime, the Geneva process for ending the Syrian conflict has become little more than zombie diplomacy—kept alive only because of an absence of alternatives and the reluctance of the US and EU to let go of the only negotiating framework accepted by all members of the UN Security Council. Narrowing the Geneva process to the matter of constitutional reform has also reduced it to an empty shell, a shadow of UNSC Resolution 2254. We argue that gains are to be made from abandoning the committee.