Economic Effects Of Syrian War And The Spread

Causes behind the Syrian Civil War

Question:

Discuss About The Economic Effects Syrian War And The Spread?

Decades before the occurrence of the conflict, several citizens of Syria expressed immense criticisms against issues related to the increasing rate of unemployment, extensive corruption, and absence liberty related to politics along with severe domination by the State, which was led by President Bashar al-Assad. The thesis statement of this essay will focus primarily on the causes behind the Syrian civil conflict that resulted to the increasing level of unrest along with certain debates related to the issue. The essay will focus on the analytical framework in the context of Syrian conflict scenario with a detailed elaboration and observation of the theoretical approach that will provide the utmost analytical effectiveness affecting in accordance to the analytical range deriving from a particular deliberation of Syria in relation to those that consists of more applicability that is general. An event of inter-state disturbance consists of an involvement of several actors and contrasting self-interests (Olsen 2017). Syria, since six years has been suffering from violence, atrocities and defensive fragmentation along with the disintegration of critical infrastructure. The conflict of Syria intensified because of the interconnectedness of range of various aspects and actors function concurrently for productive outcome. The United States originally mediated through the management of policies and sanctions in opposition to the Assad’s government.  In order to evaluate the pertaining conflicts of the Syrian civil war, research practitioners must implement a wide range of analytical research tool during the time of their disposal. There has been an existence of ideological as well as political purpose attached to the conflict.

The rising issues (problems) related to Syrian conflict, domestic as well as international range of investigation must be taken into consideration. The primary causes, which lied behind the Syrian Civil War, were acute dissatisfaction with the Assad government and severe discontent and misapprehension with its international alliances such as Russia, China and Iran. One of the major conceptions regarding peace and conflict is the existence of varied differentiations within nations. However, it must be taken into account that these differentiations are often referred as binary that further implied that states are either at war or at peace. However, in this context of civil conflict these two terminologies are opposed to each other. During a war period factors such as force, oppression, violence and atrocities are the means through which actors seek to identify and realize their goals and purposes (Heydemann 2013). The Assad government and foreign alliance and involvement played a vital role in the country’s civil war. The main purpose of the Assad government lied to reemphasize control all through the country. This growing force of oppression however caused severe disturbances with the community of Sunni Arabs or Muslims such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia were in support of the anti-Assad communities. The conflict further triggered because of certain external authorities who contributed strongly to the militant workforce and armed combatant as well.

The conflict related to Syria can be analysed within an analytical framework, depending on the methods and theoretical approaches provided by realism. The concept of realism is considered as a vast and complex practice of political thinking involving several schools and theories. The concept of realism  depends primarily on three core statements: states are referred as the central actors in the international arena that is also known as state centrism, states are unitary along with rational actors that are shifted by egoism and lastly the international system that is anarchic (Jackson and Sørensen 2016). The theoretical framework of realism is significant in order to understand and observe the realist theoretical formulations. However, it must be noted that the theoretical formulation of realism can be linked with the current state of Syrian war. The empirical verification if the realist hypothesis that states perform to follow materialistic interests is required to observe the struggle of the policies between states and the way states act in response to the other hostilities of authorities with correspondence to the realistic state of the Syrian conflict (Cushman 2013). In order to comprehend the explanations behind the attitude of Russia in the Syrian war, Assad regime must be taken into consideration on which Russia can manipulate directly. The Syrian region, during the event of cold war used to be a battleground of an authoritative struggle between two blocs, since twentieth century it has increasingly transformed under the extensive influence of US to the disadvantage of Moscow. Russia at present is performing in the region of Middle East through a balance-of-authority policy purposed at defying the impact of America (Ianchovichina and Ivanic 2016). Another alliance of the Assad regime that is Iran has contributed to the Syrian administration for economic , technical and military guidance by transporting its Iranian Revolutionary Guard or by supporting the Lebanese militia actions. The primary influencer of Teheran’s intervention is considered as an essential factor to counter balance the pressure and control exercised by the Sunni Arabs of the Gulf States and American assistance. The US has intervened at the head of a global coalition to exercise airstrikes against the ISIS in Iraq and Syria (Lynch, Freelon and Aday 2014). One of the primary agendas of this international association is to neglect actions that might be advantageous to the Assad government by conflicting with his opponents. Evaluation of the conflict through the lens of realism has provided an account of a particular part of the conflict. The theoretical framework of realism might not be able to provide all the explanations of the increasing rate of brutality by the Assad government. Various associations of resistant authorities were established to achieve international sustainability. One of the current organizations till date, is the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces that was held by the Syrian National council and the Free Syrian army.

Analytical Framework for Syrian Conflict

‘Contemporary Military Theory: The Dynamics of War’, has critically analyzed this forced oppression as a complex as well as more heterogeneous concept. This concept has been further explained as a conflict amongst the people with military as well as civil actors intensely involved with it. This association of civilians with armed forces have raised several questions in relation to legitimacy, responsibility and liability (Angstrom and Widén 2014). Syria not only experienced tremendous coercion from its regional actors like Assad rebels but also has been facing several operational conflicts the Islamic State of Iraq popularly known as the ISIS. Several militants belonged to the Turkish troop have launched armed operations against the ISIS near the borders of the country (Carpenter 2013). However, it must be noted that Syria not only experienced coalition from the Islamic states but also against the Kurdish armed forces led by the United States. War or conflict between nations occurs because of several common and shared goals. Certain social entities such as ethic communities and factors related to ideologies cause wars between nations. There lays an importance to identify and further distinguish civil wars through the concept of ‘wars of national liberation’.

The Collaborative Learning Projects examined the similarity between unproductive programmes; they either depended on a conflict investigation or were informed by insufficient analyses (Hof and Simon 2013).  However, the futility of some vastly used tools have been identified which are either extensively comprehensive or limited. It has been recognized that if the analytical framework fail to show any neutrality towards the Assad administration, then it has no trace of engagement in moral judgement. This  has been further proved through the empirical confirmations about the way Assad’s reign has resulted in triggering the existentialist atrocities in the Syrian civil war (Asseburg and Wimmen 2013). The analytical framework suggested that if the Syrian resistance continues to be fragmented then it would further result tot the continuation of this relentless conflict. The analytical framework showed its willingness to select equipments, which would further result in the avoidance of flaws and generate an effective analysis of the conflict (Mearsheimer 2014). The analytical researchers are in this opinion that a systematic conflict analysis would suggest innovative standpoints and perspectives in addition to the stakeholder analysis. This type of analysis can be termed as a complementary approach to other forms of conflict analysis. The systems conflict analysis focuses on the observation of dynamic relationships and targets between various conflict aspects and stakeholders (Dewachi et al. 2014). The concept of system conflict analysis within an intensified situation of Syria, provides assistance to establish circumstances and observe the way diverse forms of conflict scenarios effect specific factors within the conflict system as well as the system as a whole.  

Therefore, from the above analysis it can be concluded that Syria has been extensively linked with the civil war with the struggle of hostility the Assad regime has been facing with the opposition authority since the beginning of 2011. Over a million of people have lost their lives during these conflicts along with a few million who were compelled to leave the country. However, in this context the names of few western theorists must be mentioned who have portrayed the Syrian crisis as a conflict that has formed along the sectarian areas of flaw. It has been referred as a conflict that has occurred between ruling marginal section and the Sunni majority with the presence of other marginal sections caught in between. This conflict however, caught the attention and transformed into a diplomatic and peaceful revolution when the opponent sections raised their demands, which were linked with the socio-political as well as economic situation concerning the country.

References

Angstrom, J. and Widén, J.J., 2014. Contemporary military theory: the dynamics of war. Routledge.

Asseburg, M. and Wimmen, H., 2013. 3.1. The civil war in Syria and the impotence of international politics.

Carpenter, T.G., 2013. Tangled web: The Syrian civil war and its implications. Mediterranean Quarterly, 24(1), pp.1-11.

Cushman, S.T., 2013. Realism and Idealism & US Foreign Policy in the Greater Middle East.

Dewachi, O., Skelton, M., Nguyen, V.K., Fouad, F.M., Sitta, G.A., Maasri, Z. and Giacaman, management, 2014. Changing therapeutic geographies of the Iraqi and Syrian wars. the Lancet, 383(9915), pp.449-457.

Heydemann, S., 2013. Syria and the Future of Authoritarianism. Journal of Democracy, 24(4), pp.59-73.

Hof, F.C. and Simon, A., 2013. Sectarian Violence in Syria’s Civil War: Causes, Consequences, and Recommendations for Mitigation. paper commissioned by the Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Museum, accessed, 23.

Ianchovichina, E. and Ivanic, M., 2016. Economic Effects of the Syrian War and the Spread of the Islamic State on the Levant. The World Economy, 39(10), pp.1584-1627.

Jackson, R. and Sørensen, G., 2016. Introduction to international relations: theories and approaches. Oxford university press.

Lynch, M., Freelon, D. and Aday, S., 2014. Syria’s socially mediated civil war. United States Institute of Peace, 91(1), pp.1-35.

Mearsheimer, J.J., 2014. America unhinged. The National Interest, (129), pp.9-30.

Olsen, N., 2017. Blurring the Distinction Between “High” and “Low” Politics in International Relations Theory: Drifting Players in the Logic of Two-Level Games. International Relations, 5(10), pp.637-642.