Syrian Stabilization and Reconstruction: Lessons Learned for a Post-Conflict Syria PDF Download

Author: Matt Freear
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Author: Mona Yacoubian
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Armed Forces
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
The Syrian conflict poses enormous challenges for US policy and for US efforts to engage with affected Syrians, including through stabilization projects. Ongoing violence in which civilians are actively targeted shows no sign of abating. As US efforts at stabilization and transition in Syria move forward in 2014, Syria's complex conflict will continue to pose a significant set of challenges for the United States. A deeper examination of "lessons learned" from previous US experiences with conflict stabilization could provide valuable insights for Syria. Gaining deeper understanding into both successes and failures in cases including Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans holds particular merit. Ideally, these lessons learned should help to improve the effectiveness of stabilization and transition efforts in Syria and avoid the pitfalls of past stabilization experiences. The newly established Center for Applied Research on Conflict (ARC) at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) invited the Stimson Center to organize and lead the Lessons Learned for Stabilization in Syria project. Stimson established a working group comprised of experts with a broad range of expertise and skills to advise Stimson's Syria expert Mona Yacoubian, who authored the report. Working group members encompassed a wide range of institutional and country experience, and some have worked directly on Syria-related projects funded by the US government. The report is not intended to review current programming for affected populations in Syria, nor to provide operational guidance or develop ideas for specific stabilization programs. It is also not intended to assess current US policy, or to devise a new "grand strategy" for Syria. Rather, the project focuses on developing critical insights from past stabilization efforts for policy makers as they contend with the daunting challenges of engaging affected populations in war-torn Syria.

Author: Imad Salamey
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319601040
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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The book surveys comparative power sharing models implemented in societies that have faced identity-conflicts, with attention given to post-conflict design. It analyzes the success and pitfalls of international experiences before proposing a model for Syria. Contributors address the central question: which among the set of power-sharing agreements that have helped settle protracted identity-driven armed conflict can provide Syria with a platform for dialogue, negotiation, and conflict mitigation? The comparative analysis advanced in this book extracts lessons from countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Northern Ireland, the Philippines and Sudan. The prospect of a post-conflict distribution of power in Syria is then unraveled from different sectarian, ethnic and regional perspectives. The authors also address challenges of peacebuilding such as violent extremism, gender participation, resettlements, retributions, transitional justice, integration of armed groups and regional and international sponsorship.

Author: Naval Postgraduate School
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781500742614
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Syria's civil war remains a bloody stalemate between government forces and various opposition groups. The conflict continues to impact neighboring states with spillover fighting and increased economic burdens from refugees. In light both of Syria's importance to regional stability and in recent lessons learned from a lack of post-conflict planning, it is important for academics and policy makers to consider potential stabilization policies for a post-conflict Syria. This book explores a scenario where a post-Assad Syria faces a transition from civil war toward peace with its current borders and internal divisions. Under this construct, the challenges of creating a security environment, engineering a democracy, and achieving reconciliation stand out as both opportunities and obstacles in building a lasting peace in a divided Syria. Different approaches to each of these challenges are analyzed by comparing theoretical literature and case studies. In drawing lessons from different states' shared experiences, a rough outline of best practices is drawn. Finally, Syria's specific context is applied, offering a potential framework for a post-conflict Syria to build its peace.

Author: Itamar Rabinovich
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691212619
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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A compact, incisive history of a war that was an ominous prelude to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Leaving almost half a million dead and displacing an estimated twelve million people, the Syrian Civil War is a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale. Syrian Requiem analyzes the causes and course of this bitter conflict—from its first spark in a peaceful Arab Spring protest to the tenuous victory of the Asad dictatorship—and traces how the fighting has reduced Syria to a crisis-ridden vassal state with little prospect of political reform, national reconciliation, or economic reconstruction. Israel’s chief negotiator with Syria during the mid-1990s, Itamar Rabinovich brings unmatched expertise and insight to the politics of the Middle East. Drawing on more than two hundred specially conducted interviews with key players, Rabinovich and Carmit Valensi assess the roles of local, regional, and global interests in the war. Local sectarian divisions established the fault lines of the initial conflict, ultimately leading to the rise of the brutal Islamic State. However, Syria rapidly became the stage for proxy warfare between contending regional powers, including Israel, Turkey, and Iran. At the same time, while a war-weary United States attempted to reduce its military involvement in the Middle East, a resurgent Russia regained regional influence by supporting Syrian government forces. Telling the story of the war and its aftermath, Rabinovich and Valensi also examine the considerable potential for renewed conflict and the difficult policy choices facing the United States, Russia, and other powers. A compact and incisive history of one of the defining wars of our times, Syrian Requiem is a vivid and timely account of a conflict that continues to reverberate today.

Author: C. Çakmak
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137538856
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Based on extensive field work involving the leading figures of the diverse Syrian National Coalition, an umbrella initiative of opposition groups fighting against the Assad regime, this study critically evaluates the challenges ahead as well as the inherent opportunities for the post-conflict era in Syria.

Author: Dr. Jamil Effarah
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1728337615
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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It would be sad to think that US greatness depends on constant intervention and war in the name of the global order. And now after some eight years of civil conflict, the situation in Syria is basically reverting to the pre-conflict norm. The Syrian government is now close to re-establishing its sovereign control again over the entire country. Indeed, Syria’s sovereign control over its own country had been nearly completed despite the blocking efforts of many external efforts from the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. United States supported the creation of an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIS or Al-Dawlat Al-Islamia Fi al-Iraq wa Ash-Sham (DAESH) by putting together flight to tens of thousands of Al-Qaeda Jihadists (fighters) from all over the world to topple President Bashar Assad who said “no” to a Qatar pipeline through Syria and to destroy Hezbollah, topple Al-Assad, install a puppet regime and extend the comfort to Zionist Occupiers of Palestine. Syria has survived and reconquered most of the country, it was able to secure an armed-alliance with strategic allies who succeeded in neutralizing domestic insurgents. Due to the steadfastness of the Syrian Arab Army, Syria’s secular constitution which has enabled a united front against jihad and imperialism and due to military assistance from Russia and Iran, Syria has not fallen and nor will it. Syria managed to stay one country, united country, united society, because a civil war will not go on for seven or eight years continuously without dividing the country. The Syrian government succeeded to survive in controlling the majority of Syria with all the Syrian diversities or with different spectrums of the Syrian society. What took place in Syria from the very beginning are mercenaries, Syrians, and foreigners being paid by the West and its allies in the region in order to topple the government. This is the reality, the mere reality, the very stark reality. Everything else is just masks to cover the real intentions. Nowadays, Syria is the only Arab state that defies western expansionism in the Middle East and Syria was and still is a pillar of support for Arab resistance in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. Dr. Effarah expects that this book is essential for anyone seeking a deeper understanding for the cause of the current social turmoil and political violence ravaging the Arab-Islamic world, mainly the Syrian Arab Republic.

Author: William Young
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833087266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 85

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All roads lead to Damascus and then back out again, but in different directions. The financial and military aid flowing into Syria from patrons and neighbors is intended to determine the outcome of the conflict between a loose confederation of rebel factions and the regime in Damascus. Instead, this outside support has the potential to perpetuate the existing civil war and to ignite larger regional hostilities between Sunni and Shia areas that could reshape the political geography of the Middle East. This report examines the main factors that are likely to contribute to or impede the spread of violence from civil war and insurgency in Syria, and then examines how they apply to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan.

Author: Pavel Pylypcuk
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668555982
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 14

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Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, grade: A, , language: English, abstract: This essay will deal with the ongoing violent conflict in Syria, generally known as the Syrian Civil War. Being one of the most discussed and impactful conflicts of the last decade or so, the Syrian Civil War is undoubtedly worthy of an analysis from the perspective of the field of International Studies. The conflict in Syria, which has marked its fifth anniversary in March 2016, has quickly become a global political battleground for two superpowers, Russia and the United States. The involvement of the two world leaders in the conflict has also brought high level of coverage of the conflict, both in scholarly and popular literature. The global importance of this conflict and the amount of material on the topic have both given more than enough reason for the Syrian Civil War to be selected as the primary focus of the essay. Furthermore, the essay will specifically focus on two main issues: first, it will focus on the emergence of the conflict and the key actors involved in it, and second, the essay will try to describe some of the major (and often devastating)effects the conflict has had on both the country of Syria and its neighboring countries, including the continent of Europe.

Author: Carsten Wieland
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 075564140X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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The Syrian war has been an example of the abuse and insufficient delivery of humanitarian assistance. According to international practice, humanitarian aid should be channelled through a state government that bears a particular responsibility for its population. Yet in Syria, the bulk of relief went through Damascus while the regime caused the vast majority of civilian deaths. Should the UN have severed its cooperation with the government and neglected its humanitarian duty to help all people in need? Decision-makers face these tough policy dilemmas, and often the “neutrality trap” snaps shut. This book discusses the political and moral considerations of how to respond to a brutal and complex crisis while adhering to international law and practice. The author, a scholar and senior diplomat involved in the UN peace talks in Geneva, draws from first-hand diplomatic, practitioner and UN sources. He sheds light on the UN's credibility crisis and the wider implications for the development of international humanitarian and human rights law. This includes covering the key questions asked by Western diplomats, NGOs and international organizations, such as: Why did the UN not confront the Syrian government more boldly? Was it not only legally correct but also morally justifiable to deliver humanitarian aid to regime areas where rockets were launched and warplanes started? Why was it so difficult to render cross-border aid possible where it was badly needed? The meticulous account of current international practice is both insightful and disturbing. It tackles the painful lessons learnt and provides recommendations for future challenges where politics fails and humanitarians fill the moral void.