At Stanford on Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced a new strategy for troops in Syria. That country has been battling a brutal civil war for the last six-plus years.

Tillerson said peace will only come to Syria through diplomatic means, and when the country’s Syrian President Bashar al-Assad steps aside. He called for patience and an open-ended U.S. military presence to fight terrorist group resurgence. Most of all, Tillerson said, this would keep Iran from further influence in Syria and the region.

At issue here — a league of nations is embroiled in that country’s struggles. Turkey is not happy the U.S. has trained Kurdish rebels to help push back ISIS; Turkey considers the Kurds to be a terrorist group.

Russia is also in play. Most recently they’ve wanted to broker a peace deal there. In fact, the United Nations chief just days ago said "too many countries have troops in Syria."

So what does this new policy mean for international relations? For that we’re joined by Rana Khoury, from the department of political science at Northwestern University.