The Syrian Civil War and Its Effect on the World Environment

Since early 2011 protestors have lined the streets of Syria putting on demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. They were calling for an end to a nearly four decade ruling by Assad’s family, and the dispersion of the hardnosed Ba’ath Party. Shortly after these protests began Assad ordered the Syrian army to break up these demonstrations with the use of force and firing their weapons into the demonstrations.Thousands of innocent protestors were gunned down and after several months of this military onslaught the protestors and military defects formed together a rebel army to try.

As this happened the rest of the world was looking in from the outside wondering what could be done to stop this war that seemingly had no meaning to it. The war zone of Syria is not considered to be safe for anyone even the civilians that call the country their home. To date there has been over 70,000 causalities as a result of the Syrian Civil War with an alarming number of them being Syrian civilians.Armed troops of soldiers roamed the streets of the country which made it even difficult for civilians to get food or medicine that they needed to survive. Women, children, and the elderly were being brutally tortured and killed by the army they thought was there to protect them. While there still many Syrian civilians struggling in the country there are a number that have been displaced due to this conflict.

This put pressure on other countries as, “the UN puts the number of internally displaced people at 1. 2m and says it has registered over 200,000 refugees abroad.Some aid workers talk of 160,000 Syrians in Jordan alone, with a spike in the numbers of orphans and lone children arriving” (The Economist). This has increased the pressure on the countries who are taking in these misplaced citizens.

Families wait on the Syrian side of the borders with the threat of being killed by the frequent air raids by President Assad. These are act of coldblooded killers and action was needed to be taken by the powers of the world.The situation of the Syrian Civil War was now starting to get out of hand, and it caught the attention of many world powers. The United States vowed not to take military action against the Syrian government unless they resorted to chemical weapons which would cause a global threat. The United States however did decide to send nonlethal supplies along with food and medical supplies to the Syrian Opposition Forces who are trying to overthrow Assad.

Along with aid from several other countries this was a big boost for the rebel forces that had major trouble with communication and unity as a group.This still fell short of what the Opposition Forces wanted as they, “asked for several steps, including airstrikes to stop the Syrian government from firing Scud missiles, the establishment of a no-fly zone along Syria’s northern and southern borders, and a United Nations resolution condemning the Syrian government for what the opposition claims is its use of chemical weapons” (Arsu). These potential United Nation efforts are continually being blocked by Russia and China as they see them as being unfair to the Syrian government.The Russian officials see it fit that the Syrian government has a sit down with the Opposition Forces in order to work out a peace between the two.

There was a clear conflict of interest as Russia had signed a contract to supply arms to Syria before the conflict started, and there are several Russian outposts that are spread throughout Syria (Pukhov). It is unclear why China decided to decline the United Nation’s plan to start an UN-Arab League force, but it said it supported the Arab League’s plan of peacekeeping.As the struggle to punish the Syrian government continued there was finally a breakthrough as the Arab League of Nations decided to suspend Syria’s membership, and sanctions were placed on them by many nation including the United States and the European Union. The sanctions were designed to crush the economy of Syria, and the world was hoping that the country would fail economically before the civil war. The sanctions worked in the sense as, “Syria's oil minister said sanctions imposed by Western governments on his country's petroleum exports have cost $2 billion in lost revenues since last September 2011” (Watkins).Even though this was a big hit to the Syrian government it did not derail the runaway freight train that Assad was leading.

Assad was able to avert a total disaster as he sought help from fellow Middle Eastern country Iran. This now brought Iran into the conflict as they were supporting Syria as they were buying oil from them and also supplying high amount of weapons to the Syrian government to kill innocent citizens. Since Iran was ignoring United States’ sanctions that were placed on Syria the sanctions were also place on Iran.It was later found out that, “Iran has also mooted citing a mutual-defense pact to provide Mr. Assad with full-scale military backing” (The Economist). The United Nations was making significant strides since the sanctions laid a huge blow to the Regime of Assad.

The diligent work of Kofi Annan and his six point plan successfully implemented a ceasefire, but it only lasted four days as there was no United Nations support for it. As the Syrian army saw that there was no UN support for this ceasefire they took full advantage of it killing hundreds of civilians This led to renewed fighting in Syria with the rebels now taking advantage of the civil war and making significant advances to their goal of overthrowing President Assad.The war has seamlessly spiraled back into what it originally was. With all of the work that the United Nations and several countries have put into trying to stop the civil in Syria there has not been much accomplishment as the war still is going on today with it likely not ending anytime soon. Looking at the Syrian Civil War from a realist perspective there is one main goal of the United States and its allies which is to get rid of President Bashar al-Assad in order to end the civil war, but also to end its ties with Iran.Syria needed to reach out to Iran after it was hit with the heavy oil and trade sanctions by the United States, European Union, and the Arab League of Nations.

By breaking the ties of Iran and Syria the United States can prevent the manipulation of Syria by Iran to possibility help with their highly debated nuclear program. By doing this the United States is lessening the power of its enemies and therefore increasing their own power.In most cases realists think that the only way that a problem can be solved is through military force, but in this instance the United States and its allies had to use diplomacy, for example the sanctions, to try and break down Assad and the Syrian government. Another important factor to think about is what is going to happen when the Assad Regime is finally dissolved. Will there be a vacuum of power when Assad is finally overthrown? It is important to think of this as a realist because if Assad is overthrown there is going to be someone that is going to want to take the power that he held in that region.

In a sense it would be more beneficial for the regime to stay in power because if the government was overthrown then U. S. and other forces would have to be deployed to stabilize and put in a new government for Syria. Kenneth Pollack said, "If you come in with enough force and use the right tactics, you can shut down the civil war…The hard part is the political reconstruction” (Michaels). Even though the main goal in the realist perspective would be to try and overthrow Assad in the back of everyone’s mind is the effect of the aftermath is going to have on the world.

The liberal perspective brings a lot to the table regarding the Syrian Civil War as there were many institutions and relationships involved in the development of the conflict. The United Nations was heavily involved in this conflict as they tried to intervene and stop the conflict, but was stopped due to the rejection by China and Russia. The United Nations then reached out to the Arab League of Nations to impose sanctions on the oil and trade of Syria to try and crush their economy.Along with the UN supporting the Opposition Forces the United States, Great Britain, and France formed a relationship with the opposition as they sent nonlethal supplies to them in support. The Opposition Forces were not the only one reaching out for relationships as the President Assad and the Syrian government was essentially interdependent of Iran and Russia. When Syria was hit hard by the sanctions of the Western powers they sought help from Iran who bought oil from them and also supplied them with weapons.

Russia had formed a contract with the Syrians before the conflict had started to buy/sell weapons, and it was clear whose side Russia was on when they rejected the UN proposal to get rid of Assad. The liberal perspective of the Syrian Civil War show us that many relationships shaped the way that the conflict is the way it is today. The last perspective that there is much debate about in the Syrian Civil War is the identity perspective. There are large questions surrounding the facts of why the war is even being fought to this date.There are several converging and diverging identities that are involving themselves in the war trying to look out for their own best interests. A war that started on the premises of President Assad firing upon his own because they were protesting prompted many nations to take notice including the United States and the Arab League of Nations.

A main reason why these converging and diverging relationship came to fruition was due to the fact of weapons and the fear of a chemical war taking place. Ever since the Cold War the war has been on the edge regarding chemical warfare.The world believes that if a country uses a chemical bomb it could potentially send the world into frenzy. The idea of Syria having chemical warfare changed the whole dynamic of the parties involved in the conflict.

It was not the actual weapons that did this to the parties involved, but the idea and norms that were involved in the situation. The Syrian Civil War is a unique situation as it started out as a small conflict between protestors and the leader President Bashar al-Assad, but it soon spiraled out of control into a world event that caused a lot of problems.The United Nations essentially failed to take action as most of their plans were stymied by China and Russia who said their best interests were just let the Civil War play out. Peace plans eventually failed and the war spiraled back into an all-out fire fight which continues to this day.

Looking at the civil war from the perspectives gave a new understanding to the war as there was prevalent realist, liberal, and identity perspectives laced throughout the war so far.The strongest perspective would have to be realism as the many players in the war were in it to keep the balance of power and to ensure that there was not destabilization when this civil war ends. The one thing that can be taken away from this is that in these types of situations the world powers need to get their hands dirty as in previous cases, such as the Rwandan genocide, trying to work it out with the United Nations has failed miserably and allowed the conflict to keep on going with millions of people being killed in the process.