U.S. strikes in Syria may mean that the next President is doomed to inherit a long term conflict in the Middle East

Last week, the U.S. expanded its bombing campaign against the forces of the Islamic State to targets in Syria. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen writes that there are questions over the legality of the actions, which have been justified under the 2001 authorisation made in the wake of 9/11, and over its effects on the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, which is also fighting Islamic State forces. He writes that for U.S. allies in the Gulf such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, participating in the U.S. led coalition offers them an opportunity to rehabilitate their international reputations which was damaged during the Arab Spring.