Trace the roots of conflict in Syria. Which theory of international relations can be applied to understand this concept? Justify your answer.

AbstractSyria represents an interesting opportunity for worldwide dealing beca using up of the nature of the date representing twain meshinging ideologies, namely realism and revolutionism. The exigency for intervention by the international alliance is overstep, with peace negotiations consistently failing. This account investigates the nature of the conflict as end pointing from a complex set of socio- economical factors, deepen by authoritarian expression by the cite. International relations t embrocateette be used as a theoretical explanation to shape the role in that locationof in serviceing the peaceful resolution of the conflict.IntroductionThe valet currently appears to be in a constant conjure of conflict with ongoing wars worldwide, whatever garnering more than media attention than otherwises. John F. Kennedy was famously quoted as saying that there is another(prenominal) harming of war untried in its potency, antediluvian patriarch in its origin carried out by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents and assassins, in which we try to get hold of victory and eroding the enemy instead of ch eachenging him. It leverages the discontent. Syria is an example of this kind of war, where conflict began years ago, eventually trans earning into a civil war. The ohmic resistance fought against the corrupted government army leading to large numbers of civilian casualties. several(a) theories of international relations (IR) argon relevant to the conflict in rate to understand the nature of the war mingled with rebels and the national authoritarian organisation. This try on aims to apply IR scheme to the Syrian conflict to gain a deeper understanding of the theoretical aspects and the conflict respectively. The proposed theoretical application includes interventionism and the three traditions theory. The underlie cause of the conflict is a complex set of factors, including political repression, an pettish economy, corruption and a severe drought, and for the purposes of IR, certain countries corroborate an interest in ensuring that the situation in Syria remains contained with support organism given to both sides of the conflict. Through application of the theory to the totality of the conflict, the relevance at that placeof allow be clear.History and Background of the ConflictThe creation opinion political brass in Syria began in the 1970s with the Bashar family, who has historically ruled through bosom and extreme authoritarianism. The current leader, Bashar al-Assad acceded leadership in 2000 relying on armed oppression and intelligence apparatus provided by the Baath Party as well as leading business families (Manfreda, 2012). With the ruling government absolute the media and therefore controlling the information available, the opposition demanded the downfall of the ruling party and a new beginning for Syria contained in the Damascus Declaration of 2005 (Efrat, 2012). The conflict in Syria began in 2000 where there was a growing expectation of political and social convert following the death of Hafez al-Assad. The authorities monopoly of everything has established an authoritarian, totalitarian and cliquish authorities that has led to a lack of politics in society, an economic decompose and exacerbating crises of every kind (Efrat, 2012).The expectation of the people was that this authoritarian rule would end with Hafezs death. However, ruling causation remained concentrated in the Bashar family, intensify the already corrupt political repression of Syria.Living conditions continued to worsen and disdain widespread objection to the state, many civilians accepted the regime for fear of bring forward violent oppression. This social situation was exacerbated by a persistent drought, which all but destroyed the agricultural sector with particularly bad conditions in northern Syria. This in turn saw a significant simplification in the GDP of the country and widespread mi gration to cities away from rural effort (Efrat, 2012). With the deteriorating prevailing socio-economic conditions, civilians began using new media as a means of organizing themselves politically in order to do their opinions heard, demanding real reforms (Efrat, 2012). The combination of economic, political and inseparable resources factors in Syria is not favourable for a positive societal outcome. A risk assessment for the country is classified CC for Sovereign risk, silver risk, banking-sector risk, economic structure and D for political risk (EIU, 2012). With the rising intensity of the civil war, more extensive international sanctions put pressure on public finances and sanctions on the Central Bank of Syria continue to lower the currency even further (EIU, 2012). Further economic decline is acquire through the reliance on crude exports which has led to a fond(p) crash of financial markets, as the E.U has imposed an embargo on oil exports from Syria which has led to a resultant minimizing of oil production. Previously, Europe has purchased over 95% of the total oil exports in Syria and therefore this embargo has had a significantly negative effect on the economy. This has led to a decline in investing in the country as companies investing in oil exports in Syria face legal consequences (Blas, 2012). Stocks claim seen massive decline in recent years with over half the value being disjointed this year along (Legget, et al., 2009).The conflict has seen several phases over the years and is always evolving. However, these changes pitch effectively seen a concentration of wealth in the ruling family, and their cronies and allies, effectively further disenfranchising the population. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that ideologic differences have resulted in a constant violence with no clear diplomatical solution which has led to an augmentd involvement by the international confederation.International RelationsArguably, there are a number of theoretical concerns in IR that are applicable to the conflict in Syria. These are applicable as a means of deepening the current understanding of the conflict, which whitethorn lead to the come upment of an equitable solution. As the world moves towards globalization, IR becomes more important and one can argue that these represent the need to have firm principles to regulate and balance competing interests between nations, as well as competing interests at bottom a particular nation, such as Syria. IR and plays a broader global role in ensuring that relations between countries are kept at a diplomatic level for the greater pricy of all countries in the international community (Goldstein, 2007).The three traditions theory is of patent relevance to the Syrian conflict because of the duality between realism and revolutionism in the conflict. Wight (1991) argues that all leading ideologies in IR fall within the three traditions of realism, rationalism or revoluti onism. pragmatism includes ideologies such as anarchy, role politics, conflict, warfare and pessimism, whilst diametrically opposed to this is revolutionism which includes perspectives of humanity, revolutionary change, anti-state beliefs and utopianism. Rationalism falls between these two extremes and essentially for the purposes of IR, these theories are to an extent co-dependent as they are uncomplete in isolation and are complimentary as traditions rather than max (Dunne, 1993). Arguably therefore, there is a need for a balance of these traditions, and a society which is based on either extreme is one that provide necessarily breed conflict.The three traditions theory sees application in the Syrian context, particularly when recalling the conflict of ideology between the ruling regime and the opposition. Realism as the dominant ideology of the Bashar regime is the disciplining factor in Syria with the opposition representing the revolutionary tradition. The state arguably r epresents an extreme realist perspective, with complete ignorance of the international community and the assertion that they exist as a sovereign state in isolation refusing to acknowledge accountability in the international community. Realists emphasize elements of anarchy, spot politics and warfare (Wight, 1991), pessimistic of human nature and exploitative of the less(prenominal) indexful. This is a growing trend in the Syrian conflict, with an increasing tailor for the welfare of the people in Syria for financial advantage of the ruling family (Taylor, 2012). immunity forces contradict the realist tradition by the propulsion of revolutionist ideology, setting goals for the granting immunity and fulfillment of humans. Revolutionists argue that in order to do this, the class system needs to be overthrown with a classless society established (Marx, 1967). By abolishing a classless society, humans would again be united and there would be no need for states or international rela tions. To an extreme, revolutionist ideas see humankind at the center, claiming a world society inclusive of everyone. The earth of these two ideological extremes represents the greatest roadblock in the resolution of the Syrian conflict, which necessitates the need for international intervention, because of a lack of testamentingness to compromise between the state and the opposition. Again, this represents the applicability of the three traditions theory, as arguably the carriage of the international community in the resolution of the conflict represents the rational tradition presence. This means that there pull up stakes be a compromise between the controllers of the state resources, i.e. the state on the one hand, and domestic society on the other, as delineated by the opposition.The consequence of a dominant realist ideology is that the state leave alone not participate in IR unless it represents a substantial investment in state outcomes, essentially meaning that the Sy rian government leave alone not engage in treaties that are not specifically to their advantage. A shift in favour of the domestic population removing state power arguably is not in the interests of a realist ideology and therefore will not be respected for the purposes of IR. Syria can be described as a weak post-colonial state, categorized by a incorrect economy, a lack of coherent national economy and lack of sustaining staple fiber levels of welfare and resources provided to the population (Saul, 1974). The Syrian people in rural areas have an extremely low standard of living, concentrated on traditional, yet defective agriculture and significant dependence on world markets and external economic interests. There is little state legitimacy as a result of inefficient and corrupt administration with a lack of concern for public opinion about the government and no significant efforts made to increase the perception of state legitimacy. Post-colonial states have often shown vulner ability towards violent conflicts as a result of corrupt state institutions, authoritarian rule and the use of natural resources as a means of funding the economy without mesh of the national population and as a result, spiraling socio-economic conditions with no clear agenda for improvement thereof. This has plagued developing nations globally and is referred to as the resource curse. The presence of IR in these conflicts essentially forms a middle ground for the composition of legitimate state institutions in order to mediate the extremes of realist and revolutionist ideological differences.In addition to the three traditions theory, interventionism likewise adds depth to the conflict. Interactions with Saudi Arabia, Russia, USA, France and Britain have arguably been aimed at the manipulation of the economy, society or affairs of another nature in Syria. With the civil war in Syria, both sides of the conflict have been receiving aid from external parties. Saudi Arabia for examp le supports the opposition with guess that it is a means of breaking international relations between the Moslem Republic of Iran and Syria. In doing so, they are ensuring that the balance of power does not wellbeing Iran, using their oil wealth to arm the Syrian opposition, although not instantaneously involving themselves in the conflict (Manfreda, 2012). On the other hand, the Syrian government benefits from a relationship with Russia, where the Russian government provides weapons in the name of national refutation and security. Incidences in international affairs has seen Russia and China using their veto power in the United Nations Security Council to prevent a resolution condemning the Syrian government for violent suppression of anti-government protests ( gramme View, 2012).Despite aid being used as a form of international political leverage, Syria has also found itself at the centre of international relations for the purpose of maintaining some measure of international d iplomacy and peace measures, where they have been forced into quasi-peace agreements. In 2005, France and USA pressured the Syrian army to withdraw troops from Lebanon. More deep the United Kingdom and the United States of America, amongst other Western states have been more and more intervening in the civil war providing aid in the form of communications, logistics and advice. The expectation however is that the involvement in the conflict will develop into more active intervention, such as the United Kingdom asking Syrian rebels to set out a vision for how a post-Assad Syria could be governed (Blitz, 2012).ConclusionIt is clear that interventionism exists as a form of IR with regards to Syria for two apparent reasons. The first is to gain some form of political advantage, although arguably this is a secondary concern as the situation becomes more severe. These countries are therefore intervening in the conflict through provision of aid as a means of gaining some form of interna tional bargain power to shape future international relations. The second concern, which arguably forms the arse of Western intervention is in the interests of the international community generally, namely the certificate of peaceful relations in international affairs. Although the effectiveness of these measures remains to be seen, clearly there is no obvious solution to the conflict in Syria, and to the extent that the three traditions theory remains without a complimentary residual and as a result IR is used to provide the diplomatic compromise between realism and revolutionism, it is arguable that without IR peaceful compromise will never be reached. Although it is not clear whether IR will provide an equitable solution to this conflict, it is evident that the opposition and state forces in Syria are unable to reach a solution internally and the single realistic solution therefore is reliant on IR theory to attempt to resolve the conflict in the absence of any other practica l solution.BibliographyBlas, J.(2012). 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