Syrian Civil War: Causes, Conflicts, and Analytical Framework

This essay provides a detailed analysis of the Syrian Civil War, exploring its causes, the key conflicts, and the involvement of various actors. It examines the role of the Assad regime, international alliances such as Russia and Iran, and the impact of external forces. The essay utilizes a realist analytical framework to understand the dynamics of the conflict, considering state interests, power struggles, and the anarchic nature of the international system. It further discusses the impact of the conflict on the Syrian population, the rise of opposition groups, and the involvement of the United States and other global actors. The essay also highlights the importance of understanding the historical context and the various perspectives on the conflict to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Syrian civil war.

Running head: SYRIAN CIVIL WAR, A DEBATABLE ISSUE
SYRIAN CIVIL WAR, A DEBATABLE ISSUE
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1SYRIAN CIVIL WAR, A DEBATABLE ISSUE
General Introduction
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
means 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.
Syrian Civil 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

2SYRIAN CIVIL WAR, A DEBATABLE ISSUE
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.
Analytical Framework
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

3SYRIAN CIVIL WAR, A DEBATABLE ISSUE
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.
Analysis
‘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).

4SYRIAN CIVIL WAR, A DEBATABLE ISSUE
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.
General Summary
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.

5SYRIAN CIVIL WAR, A DEBATABLE ISSUE
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