Forging New Strategies in Protracted Refugee Crises: Regional Study

The Syrian refugee crisis is exposing the inadequacy of international refugee policy for responding to complex, protracted crises in the contemporary era. As the fighting in Syria drags on indefinitely, host states in Syria’s neighbourhood are facing new challenges and increasingly struggling to provide a protection space. This paper explores the potential for more innovative and sustainable strategies of refugee management. It proposes that new types of partnership must be created between international donors, host states, refugees and others in order to begin to address phenomena such as aid dependency and host state fatigue, and steer international refugee policy towards more sustainable and mutually beneficial initiatives.