Syria Conflict

Introduction The Syrian Arab Republic is an Arab terra firma in Western Asia, b exhibitioning Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the North, Iraq to the East, Jordan to the South, and Israel to the Southwest. In March 2011, the Syria divergence has begun out-of-pocket to variant reasons and is still going on today. This outbreak is one of the key factors which issuanceed the Arab trammel (Arab Uprising). Arab Spring refers to the democratic uprisings that arose independently and spread across the Arab world in 2011.The aver originated in Tunisia in celestial latitude 2010 and quickly took hold in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. In these countries, the citizens intiatied the protests as the command families have been keeping the federal agency for too long (Arab Spring, 2012). In Syria, the conflict goes up to its peak as the revolution against the rule of Syria chairperson Bashar Al-Assads (Mr Assad). According to the late st report of the Human Right Organization, more than 36,000 large number were killed in this hearty-behaved struggle (Khera, 2012).In this essay, the roots of the conflict will be traced and analysed using the International relation (IR) theories. Literature reappraisal A literature re moot has been conducted to check over the causes of the conflict by applying IR theories. The traditional core of IR relates to issues concerning the organic evolution and change of sovereign statehood, in the context of the larger system or society of state. In general, on that point atomic number 18 four (4) major theoretical traditions in IR and will be cover as part of the study scope reality Liberalism International Society and International Political rescue (IPE). Realism Several general realist ideas and assumptions were discussed (Jackson, 2010). These are related to various aspects such as pessimistic view of merciful nature international conflicts that are ultimately resolved by fight, high regard for the determine of national hostage and state survival and basic scepticism that there can be build up in international politics that is comparable to that in domestic semipolitical life. In summary, with realist, states are the well-nigh important factor.All states tend to pursue self-interested and their primary concern is survival (Wikipedia). Liberalism The other theory is Liberalism, which started by bath Locke in the seventeenth (17th) century. He believed that as the development of technologies and bulk can master the nature, there are great potential that people could flourish in states that guaranteed individual liberty. Liberals, differ from realist, take a confirming view of human nature. And for them, conflict and war are evacuateable.According to John Locke, the core concern of Liberalism is the happiness and rejoicing of individual human beingnesss. A body politic is in a state of liberalism when a citizen deep down that province can live their lives and pursue their happiness without other people interference. (Jackson, 2010) There is a major see between idealist Liberalism and pessimist Realism. A main point in this debate is concerned about human nature, as Liberalism takes a positive view of human nature while Realism holds a negative view. (Jackson, 2010) (Arab Spring, 21) International SocietyUnlike Realism and Liberalism International Society is one of unspotted IR approach which tries to avoid the stark choice between state egotism and conflict and human goodwill and cooperation. Instead of adopting the classical Realist pessimistic view or classical Liberalism optimistic view, it occupies a position between those two and develops that into a separate IR approach. (Jackson, 2010) International Political Economy International Political Economy (IPE) is the debate where they claimed that there is a link between politics and economics as well as the nature and outcome of economic globalization.IPE is ultimately concerned with the routes in which political forces (states, institutions, individual actors, etc. ) shape the systems through and through which economic interactions are expressed, and conversely the effect that economic interactions (including the billet of collective markets and individuals acting both within and outside them) have upon political structures and outcomes. (Jackson, 2010) Syrian Confliction review The first protest erupted on March 2011 in Deraa after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who were painted with revolutionary slogans on a school wall.In order to manage the uncontrollable chaotic situation, minimum military forces were suitably in arse to minimise the protest through the use of checkpoint road blocks. As the protest continued and spread widely over the unpolished the citizens demanded for the President Bashar Al-Assads resignation. By July 2011 hundreds of thousand people taking to streets, town and cities across the countries such as Alepo, Hama, Homs and Deraa (BBC, 2012). As the act of protest has become uncontrollable, the government applied the military forces to crush the dissent and send tanks to Deraa in late March 2011.Rockets and mortars were as well as used to hit the rebel stronghold (See Appendix 1. 1 Homs Feb 2012). After a month of bombardment, the rebels retreated with an estimate of more than 700 people were killed. People within the country have to flee to neighboring countries such as Turkey up to several months. According to the statistics record by the United Nations refugee agency, there are more than 200,000 Syrians who have registered with the agency fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey. There was also an unauthorised estimate of the refugees which puts the number much higher and those get a lines are expected to rise.The Government in Jordan as well as other countries permitted the stay of Syrians within the countries, provided with minimum necessities and protection such as f ood and security guards. All the refugees were instructed to assemble in one common area, allowing the government to take care and control the crowds easily. In this Syria crisis, number of bomb blasts took place in different cities. Many people were killed in the elegant war due to the bomb strikes. Apart from causing deaths most of the facilities in the cities were destroyed.The war has deniably resulted various negative implications to Syria in terms of people, environment and asset. The Syrian government has put the blame of these activities to the terrorists which linked to the al-Qeada as well as a shadowy group called al-Nusa Front. The al-Nusa Front has said to be one who controlled and manipulated all the attacks and bombing activities. establish on the latest figures provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the number of deaths reported has been change magnitude to 21067 and 5980 people were killed due to the security forces. and then the United Nations has charged the Syrian government and security forces for the violation of international human-centred law. A peace plan was suggested and conducted by the UN envoy, Kofi Annan and the negotiation mission started in April 2012. However as strength escalated, Mr. Annan resigned and withrew from the country. At the kindred time Mr. Assad still shows no sign of leaving his major power and there seems to be no end to the crisis. Trace down the root of the problem. As mentioned in the previous sections, the outbreak of the civil war has brought many negative implications to the country.There appears to have no solution for the civil war. Thus various researches were conducted to investigate and analyse the causes of the problem. In most recent research, Manfreda has pointed critical points which has led to the Syrian uprising (Manfreda, 2012) Political Repression top-heavy Economy Media influence and Fear of state power. The political repression is one of the main re asons which causes the outbreak of Syrian war. Since 1950s, there was non any peaceful transfer of power, as the change appears to happen through a military coup or an uprising (Manfreda, 2012).For instance as soon as the President Bashar al-Assad has inherited the power in 2000, he quickly rushed into the process of reformation while the power remains intemperate in the ruling family. Besides political repression, the unstability of frugality in Syria is believed to be one of the causes which led to the uprising. The economy in Syria has become unsustainable due to the quick expansion of the population. At present the population in Syria is estimated to be 20 million, with an average growth rate of 2. 4 percents. Based on the statistical review this figure stays among one of the worlds highest growth rate.A Syrian economist, Nail Sukkar has agreed that Syria is currently having a problem with the oversizing of population. It is difficult for the government to sustain the citizen s by providing sufficient welfares and healthcares. The unemployment rate has increased because the government is not able to create sufficient job opportunities to the people. An official figure was reported by the governmnet stating that the unemployment rate is estimated to be 10 percents. However with the junto of other independent estimates the rate of unemployment is believed to be approximately 25 percents.In addition, the innate(p) disaster such as persistent drought struck north-eastern of Syria. This has caused a severe devastation to the res publica communities and affected more than a million of people since 2008. Due to the negligence of the government, thousands of farmer families were suffered from poverty. These people from the tillage communities have vented their angers and frustrations through participation of the protest activities. Furthermore due to the cautious reform of the remnants of socialism, it subject the door to private investment which in turn tr iggered an explosion of consumerism among the urban upper-middle classes.However, privatization has favored families with personal links to Assad, which made the jobs remained scarce for people within the country (Manfreda, 2012). Apart from that the awareness was raised by different means of media. The advancement in technology has exposed the people to the world issues throguh various approaches for instance internet. antecedently the government tried to refrain the youths from exposing to more information by limiting the means of media. However the sweat was failed since the state media is no longer the main channel to the citizens.The use of the new media is critical to the activist networks that subscribe the uprising in Syria (Manfreda, 2012). Although the fear of state of the citizens has existed for a very long time since the ruling of Assad family, the wild responses to the people in the peaceful protest in Spring 2011 has outraged the people. As a result of the s right awayball effect, more citizens joined the protest. Additionally, many Syrians resent the fact that so much power is monopolised by the Alawi families, a Shiite religious minority to which the Assad family belong.Although this is not considered as the driving force of the uprising in Syria, the combination of a majority Sunni pretest movement and an Alawi-dominated military has added to the tension in religiously mixed areas, such as city of Homs (Manfreda, 2012). Analysis the problem using IR theoretical. The causes led to the outbreak of the Syrian war were discussed in the former section. In this section the problems will be analysed using the IR theory. Irrefutably, the brutal and aggressive way of ruling in Syria by Assad family triggered the anger of the people in the country.The Realism theory can be accounted for the approach adopted by the Assad family in ruling the country. As stated in the Realism theory, as a human character, people always desire to be in drivers seat. Th ucydides (1972406) also stated that the standard of justice depends on the equality to compel and that in act the strong do what they have to power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept Also, Machiavelli (198466) indicated the main responsibility of the ruler is always to seek the advantages and to defend the interests of their state and thus ensure the survival.In this , President Bashar Al-Assads ways of ruling the country is understandable, as he wants to lead the country to the new path of development, which can secure the country state and position amongst the Arab countries (Robert, 2010). However, these action moves created a massive conflict between the citizens and Assad family as the security of the citizens is being abused. This has directly caused he citizens losing their senses of security with the ruling family and consequently the rebellion arose.According to Thomas Hobbes , he believes that Sovereign states are the principal factor in international syst em. States are inherently always obsessed with security which talent lead to security dilemima whereby increasing ones security power can bring along even greater instability as an opposing power builds up its own arms in response. Since ruling Syria, the Assad family had built up a very strong security power through various means such as developing the massive destruction weapons.This has indeed intimidated the safety of the neighbouring Arab countie and it is now understandable why certain countries such as Turkey and Isarel supported the rebel by providing armors and weapons for the people to go against the government. At the same time, Mr. Assad was assisted by Russia with the supply of weapons to continue fighting in the war. Therefore the situation has gone worse due to the supports from other countries in the war. With Liberalism theory, liberals believe that monopoly in power essential be avoided.With the Republican liberalism theory, it is believed that democary states do not go against each other as they share the same moral values, and to their mutually benifical tie of economic cooperation and interdependence. However, for the Arab countries in general and Syria in specific, the monarchy system has been adopted by these countries over the centuries. Based on the findings in the previous section, it was identified that there is no peaceful power transfer in Syria since 1970. The prolonged imbalanced situation has resulted in the rise of the awareness among the citizens.Besides the issues of wealth and porverty mentioned by IPE are critical in the world of politic. Violent conflicts nowadays can even take place inside the states due to the unstable economy, especially the weak states where the conflict can be bonded up with the development and underdevelopment. Since 1970, the Assad family has been tightly manipulated the economy. All the privileges of ecocomy went to the family and thus creating an imbalanced condition between the ruler and citize ns. In addition, due to the gigantism of population, there were no adequate job opportunities provided by the government to the citizens.As a result the unemployment rate has increased causing the people to suffer from poverty. Conclusion In a nutshell, the revolution in Syria is inevitable due to the number of reasons such as the adoption of monarchy system and unstability of economy. It is believed that the only way to terminate the civil war is through the assistance of external forces to suppress the furious citizens and introduce a fair and transparent political process for the selection of new ruler in the country for instance through the adoptation of democracy system.Bibliography Wikipedia. (n. d. ). Realism (international transaction). Retrieved 11 17, 2012, from http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Realism_(international_relations) Arab Spring. (2012, 09 21). Retrieved 11 20, 2012, from Sourcewatch http//www. sourcewatch. org/index. php? title=Arab_Spring BBC. (2012, 08 30). Sy ria The story of the conflict. Retrieved 11 04, 2012, from BBC news http//www. bbc. co. uk/news/world-middle-east-19331551 Jackson, R. (2010). Introduction to International relations Throries and approaches.Oxford University Press. Khera, J. (2012, 05 29). Syria crisis Counting the victims. Retrieved 11 04, 2012, from BBC News http//www. bbc. co. uk/news/world-middle-east-18093967 Manfreda, P. (2012). Syrian Uprising Top ten reasons for the uprising in Syria. Retrieved 11 5, 2012, from middleeast. about. com http//middleeast. about. com/od/syria/tp/Syrian-Uprising. htm Robert, G. (2010). Realism. In Introduction to International Relations (pp. 59-94). Oxfords Oxfords Univerity Press.