Why the Syrian conflict will define the decade

A deal over Syria may be the most positive sign the world could overcome its many growing challenges, writes Peter Apps

Many decades have a war that defines them, a conflict that points to much broader truths about the era — and perhaps presages larger things to come.

For the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War, the three-year fight between Fascists (helped by Nazi Germany) and Republicans (armed by the Soviet Union) pointed to the far larger global disaster to come.