Download or read book Syria as an Arena of Strategic Competition written by Jeffrey Martini and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2013-03-13 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Less than two years since the beginning of the uprising in Syria, localized protests have morphed into full-blown civil conflict, and external actors have become involved as well. RAND conducted an analytic exercise to generate a greater understanding of the parties and issues in play, including the actors, their motivations, and potential impact of their activities.
Download or read book Syria as an Arena of Strategic Competition written by Jeffrey Martini and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2013-03-13 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Less than two years since the beginning of the uprising in Syria, localized protests have morphed into full-blown civil conflict, and external actors have become involved as well. RAND conducted an analytic exercise to generate a greater understanding of the parties and issues in play, including the actors, their motivations, and potential impact of their activities.
Download or read book Putin s War in Syria written by Anna Borshchevskaya and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-04 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Skillfully lays out Mr. Putin's approach to the Middle East." Wall Street Journal "Detailed and fascinating." Diplomatic Courier Putin intervened in Syria in September 2015, with international critics predicting that Russia would overextend itself and Barack Obama suggesting the country would find itself in a “quagmire” in Syria. Contrary to this, Anna Borshchevskaya argues that in fact Putin achieved significant key domestic and foreign policy objectives without crippling costs, and is well-positioned to direct Syria's future and become a leading power in the Middle East. This outcome has serious implications for Western foreign policy interests both in the Middle East and beyond. This book places Russian intervention in Syria in this broader context, exploring Putin's overall approach to the Middle East – historically Moscow has a special relationship with Damascus – and traces the political, diplomatic, military and domestic aspects of this intervention. Borshchevskaya delves into the Russian military campaign, public opinion within Russia, as well as Russian diplomatic tactics at the United Nations. Crucially, this book illustrates the impact of Western absence in Syria, particularly US absence, and what the role of the West is, and could be, in the Middle East.
Download or read book Spillover from the Conflict in Syria written by William Young and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2014-08-27 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aid flowing into Syria is intended to determine the outcome of the conflict between rebel factions and Damascus. Instead, it could perpetuate the civil war and ignite larger regional hostilities that could reshape the political geography of the Middle East. This report examines the main factors likely to contribute to or impede the spread of violence from civil war and insurgency in Syria, and then examines how they apply to neighboring states.
Download or read book Proxy Warfare on the Cheap written by Spyridon Plakoudas and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-03-15 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how the USA decided, reluctantly at first, to use the Syrian Kurds as a cheap proxy warrior against ISIS and how this partnership evolved, in the end, into a not-so-cheap investment owing to its unforeseen geopolitical implications.
Download or read book Russia Rising written by Dimitar Bechev and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The war in Syria has put Russia at the centre of Middle Eastern politics. Moscow's return to the region following a prolonged period of absence has enhanced its geopolitical status at a time it has emerged as a rival to the West. Yet, contrary to the media hype, Vladimir Putin is not set to become the new power-broker in this strategically important part of the world. Co-authored by a team of prominent scholars and analysts from the EU, US, Russia and the Middle East, this book explores Russia's role in the Middle East and North Africa, the diverse drivers shaping its policy, and the response from local players. Chapters map out the history of Russian involvement, before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the impact on key issues such as security and defence, regional conflicts, arms trade, and energy, as well as relations influential states and country clusters such as Iran, the Gulf, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, and the Maghreb. It also looks at how the Middle East impacts on Russia's relations with the West. The book offers a balanced assessment of Russian influence, highlighting both the political, diplomatic and commercial gains made thanks to Putin's decision in September 2015 to intervene militarily in Syria and the constraints preventing Moscow from replacing the United States as a regional hegemon.
Download or read book The Role of Intelligence and State Policies in International Security written by Mehmet Emin Erendor and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is well-known that the understanding of security has changed since the end of the Cold War. This, in turn, has impacted the characteristics of intelligence, as states have needed to improve their security policies with new intelligence tactics. This volume investigates this new state of play in the international arena.
Download or read book Destroying a Nation written by Nikolaos Van Dam and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-30 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the Arab Spring, Syria descended into civil and sectarian conflict. It has since become a fractured warzone which operates as a breeding ground for new terrorist movements including ISIS as well as the root cause of the greatest refugee crisis in modern history. In this important book, former Special Envoy of the Netherlands to Syria, Nikolaos van Dam, explains the recent history of Syria, covering the growing disenchantment with the Asad regime, the chaos of civil war and the fractures which led to an immense amount of destruction in the refined social fabric of what used to be the Syrian nation. Through an in-depth examination, van Dam traces political developments within the Asad regime and the various opposition groups from the Arab Spring to the present day, and provides a deeper insight into the conflict and the possibilities and obstacles for reaching a political solution.
Download or read book Quicksilver War written by William Harris and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quicksilver War is a panoramic political history of the wars that coursed through Syria and Iraq in the wake of the 'Arab Spring' and eventually merged to become a regional catastrophe: a kaleidoscopic and constantly shifting conflict involving many different parties and phases. William Harris distils the highly complex dynamics behind the conflict, starting with the brutalizing Baathist regimes in Damascus and Baghdad. He charts the malignant consequences of incompetent US occupation of Iraq and Bashar al-Assad's self-righteous mismanagement of Syria, through the implosion of Syria, and the emergence of eastern and western theatres of war focused respectively on future control of Syria and the challenge of ISIS. Beyond the immediate arena of conflict, geopolitical riptides have also been set in motion, including Turkey's embroilment in the war and the shifting circumstances of the Kurds. This sweeping history addresses urgent questions for our time. Will the world rubber-stamp and bankroll the Russian-led 'solution' in Syria, backed by Turkey and Iran? Is the 'Quicksilver War' about to reach an explosive finale? Or will ongoing political maneuvering mutate into years of further violence?
Download or read book The Syrian Jihad written by Charles R. Lister and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-02 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eruption of the anti-Assad revolution in Syria has had many unintended consequences, among which is the opportunity it offered Sunni jihadists to establish a foothold in the heart of the Middle East. That Syria's ongoing civil war is so brutal and protracted has only compounded the situation, as have developments in Iraq and Lebanon. Ranging across the battlefields and international borders have been dozens of jihadi Islamist fighting groups, of which some coalesced into significant factions such as Jabhat al Nusra and the Islamic State. This book assesses and explains the emergence since 2011 of Sunni jihadist organizations in Syria's fledgling insurgency, charts their evolution and situates them within the global Islamist project. Unprecedented numbers of foreign fighters have joined such groups, who will almost certainly continue to host them. Thus, external factors in their emergence are scrutinized, including the strategic and tactical lessons learned from other jihadist conflict zones and the complex interplay between Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State and how it has influenced the jihadist sphere in Syria. Tensions between and conflict within such groups also feature in this indispensable volume.
Download or read book The Military Balance in the Middle East written by Anthony H. Cordesman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2004-09-30 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noted Middle East military expert Anthony H. Cordesman details the complex trends that come into play in determining the military balance in a region that has become so critical to world peace. This ready resource provides a wealth of information on military expenditures and major arms systems, as well as qualitative trends, by country and by zone. However, as Cordesman stresses, because the greater Middle East is more a matter of rhetoric than military reality, mere data summarizing trends in 23 different countries is no substitute for a substantive explanation. Using tables, graphs, and charts, this study explores every aspect of the regional military balance with attention to sub-regional balances, internal civil conflicts, and low level border tensions. The Middle East is certainly one of the most militarized areas in the world, and changes in technology, access to weapons of mass destruction, and political instability contribute to a situation that has long been in constant flux. Some of the regional flashpoints covered in this study include the Maghreb (North Africa); the Arab-Israeli conflict (dominated by Israel versus Syria); and the Gulf (divided into those states that view Iran as the primary threat and those who lived in fear of Iraq). Internal conflicts, such as those in Mauritania, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Yemen, increasingly dominate regional tensions. In addition, border conflicts within the region and with neighboring countries could further aggravate the delicate balance.
Download or read book Insurgency and Counter Insurgency in Turkey written by Spyridon Plakoudas and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-04-04 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to answer the “why” and “how” questions about the insurgency of the PKK, a militant left-wing group of Turkey’s Kurds, in Turkey. The PKK has been inter-locked in an intermittent war against Turkey since 1984 in the name of Kurdish nationalism. The author combines insights of Strategy and IR - from strategy and tactics in irregular warfare to peace negotiations between state authorities and insurgents, with data from qualitative research, to achieve two inter-related objectives: first, assess the current state of affairs and predict the future course of the conflict and, secondly, draw general conclusions on how protracted conflicts can end and how.
Download or read book Crossroads of Competition written by Becca Wasser and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report details the political, economic, and military interests and activities of China and Russia in the Middle East and identifies where those efforts contest, intersect, or complement U.S. interests and activities.
Download or read book The MENA Region a great power competition written by AA.VV and published by Ledizioni. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume deals with competition among regional and external players for the redistribution of power and international status in the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on Russia’s renewed role and the implications for US interests. Over the last few years, a crisis of legitimacy has beset the liberal international order. In this context, the configuration of regional orders has come into question, as in the extreme case of the current collapse in the Middle East. The idea of a “Russian resurgence” in the Middle East set against a perceived American withdrawal has captured the attention of policymakers and scholars alike, warranting further examination. This volume, a joint publication by ISPI and the Atlantic Council, gathers analysis on Washington’s and Moscow’s policy choices in the MENA region and develops case studies of the two powers’ engagament in the countries beset by major crises.
Download or read book Erdogan s Empire written by Soner Cagaptay and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-19 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gradually since 2003, Turkey's autocratic leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought to make Turkey a great power -- in the tradition of past Turkish leaders from the late Ottoman sultans to Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. Here the leading authority Soner Cagaptay, author of The New Sultan -- the first biography of President Erdogan -- provides a masterful overview of the power politics in the Middle East and Turkey's place in it. Erdogan has picked an unorthodox model in the context of recent Turkish history, attempting to cast his country as a stand-alone Middle Eastern power. In doing so Turkey has broken ranks with its traditional Western allies, including the United States and has embraced an imperial-style foreign policy which has aimed to restore Turkey's Ottoman-era reach into the Arabian Middle East and the Balkans. Today, in addition to a domestic crackdown on dissent and journalistic freedoms, driven by Erdogan's style of governance, Turkey faces a hostile world. Ankara has nearly no friends left in the Middle East, and it faces a threat from resurgent historic adversaries: Russia and Iran. Furthermore, Turkey cannot rely on the unconditional support of its traditional Western allies. Can Erdogan deliver Turkey back to safety? What are the risks that lie ahead for him, and his country? How can Turkey truly become a great power, fulfilling a dream shared by many Turks, the sultans, Ataturk, and Erdogan himself?
Download or read book Russian strategy in the Middle East and North Africa written by Derek Averre and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2024-02-27 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses Russia’s strategy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the turbulent period since the inception of the Arab Spring. It explores the key policy challenges faced by Russia in the context of Russia’s relations with both the regional states and the major external powers. The book incorporates chapters on Russia’s involvement in MENA affairs, its intervention in the Syrian civil war, the domestic sources of its foreign policy, its clash with the Western powers over issues pertaining to sovereignty and humanitarian norms, its response to the challenge posed by Islamist extremism, and its political-military and economic interests in the MENA region. The book offers an original, critical analysis of Russia’s thinking and decision-making and examines the implications of its more assertive foreign policy strategy following its military interventions in Syria and Ukraine.
Download or read book The Origins of the Syrian Conflict written by Marwa Daoudy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-26 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a new conceptual framework drawing on human security to evaluate the claim that climate change caused the conflict in Syria.
