--- --- # Looking Beyond Diplomacy in Syria by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 24, 2016 4:11 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 24, 2016 4:11 PM UTC **1\.** [**Could the U.S. really bring an end to the Syrian civil war with an air assault on Assad?**](https://www.lawfareblog.com/would-airstrikes-against-assad-be-lawful-and-effective-reactions-state-dissent-cable) By Ashley Deeks and Marty Lederman in Lawfare **2\.** [**After Trump, Sanders, Senate filibusters and House sit-ins, will American politics ever be the same?**](http://www.vox.com/2016/6/22/12007250/house-sit-in-guns-social-media) By Libby Nelson in Vox **3\.** [**Here’s how a simple pronoun plays into a gender revolution.**](http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160623-the-ultimate-21st-century-word) By Fiona Macdonald at the BBC **4\.** [**Why don’t LGBT entrepreneurs come out to investors?**](http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2016/06/22/for-gay-lesbian-founders-a-delicate-balance-at-the-table-with-investors/) By Karis Hustad in Chicago Inno **5\.** [**Don’t bother ‘brain-training.’ It’s just the placebo effect at work.**](http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/06/billion-dollar-brain-training-industry-a-sham-nothing-but-placebo-study-suggests/) By Beth Mole in Ars Technica  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ Looking Beyond Diplomacy in Syria ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4381504/looking-beyond-diplomacy-in-syria/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4381504/looking-beyond-diplomacy-in-syria/"},"headline":"Looking Beyond Diplomacy in Syria","datePublished":"2016-06-24T16:11:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:50.565Z","description":"These are today's five best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4381504/looking-beyond-diplomacy-in-syria/","keywords":["Innovation","gender","Brain","Syria","Bernie Sanders","Donald Trump","Venture Capital"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4381504/looking-beyond-diplomacy-in-syria/","name":"Looking Beyond Diplomacy in Syria"}}]}] ```