Editor's note

Americans’ lives are shifting in significant ways, every day it seems. But our version of the coronavirus crisis still qualifies as a #firstworldproblem. Syrians have been suffering deeply for years, and their situation is about to get much worse, writes Clark University political scientist Ora Szekely.

She uses her fieldwork in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East to explain why it’s so hard to resolve the Syrian conflict, which is almost a decade old. Szekely also offers a glimpse of what may happen next, as the pandemic reaches displaced people and refugee camps.

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Jeff Inglis

Politics + Society Editor

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Displaced Syrians learn about the danger of the coronavirus to them in their camps. Mohammed Al-Rifai/AFP via Getty Images

2 reasons – and 1 disease – that make peace in Syria so difficult

Ora Szekely, Clark University

Everyone in Syria is fighting a slightly different war from everyone else, there are outsiders with their own goals – and the coronavirus is about to make everything much worse.

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  • Video: The fashionable history of social distancing

    Anurag Papolu, The Conversation

    From the bird masks of plague doctors and large voluminous skirts to hat pins and face masks, this video provides a quick tour through the history of protective fashion.

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