This work aims to analyze the responses of Syria to two international changes comparatively. After the end of the Cold War, US initiated a foreign policy doctrine based on American hegemony. This policy was firstly manifested in the war on Iraq as a response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on January 17, 1991. It was noteworthy to see Syria aligning with the US during the Gulf War (1990-1991), as the country had been allied against the US during the Cold War period. Syria was also the first state accepting US proposal for a peace conference known as Madrid Peace Conference. All these developments reveal that Syria had been cooperated with the US in the aftermath of the Cold War. The second international change analyzed within the framework of this study is the September 11 events. Following the September 11 attacks, the US declared a &ldquo / war on terror&rdquo / to recover its superpower position and intervened in Afghanistan and then Iraq. In that process, Syria opted for countering the US and became the leading critique of the invasion of Iraq. This study examines the different responses of Syria to the end of the Cold War and the post-September 11 period through using neoclassical realism as a model.

This thesis analyzes the dynamics of bilateral relationship between the United States of America and Syrian Arab Republic from Hafez Asad&rsquo / s grasp of power in 1970 to the latest domestic uprising of 2011. The relationship will be considered under three main vectors / struggle over Lebanon, tensions regarding peace process and Israel, and rogue statehood of Syria attributed by the United States.

Under 2011 så utbröt det våldsamma oroligheter i Libyen och Syrien med många civila offer. FN:s säkerhetsråd utfärdade i mars 2011 en resolution om upprättandet av en No-Fly Zone i Libyen. Ryssland har sedan länge haft en uttalad inställning mot att stater lägger sig i andra länders inre angelägenheter. Ryssland avstod från att rösta i fallet Libyen vilket möjliggjorde en humanitär insats. Men avseende Syrien så har Ryssland använt sitt veto två gånger för att stoppa resolutioner som möjliggör en humanitär insats. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka om Rysslands agerande kan förklaras utifrån realistisk teori inom internationella relationer. Forskningsfrågan som ska besvaras är: Hur påverkade Rysslands egenintressen dess agerande i FN:s säkerhetsråd i samband med konflikterna i Libyen och Syrien. Undersökningen genomförs som en kvalitativ textanalys.  Den utförs som en analys av meningsinnehåll i ett utvalt material med användning av indikatorer som är logiskt härledda från realistisk teori. Realistisk teori beskriver staters agerande och att de har intressen. Resultatet av undersökningen är att Ryssland värderade principen om interventioner beslutade av säkerhetsrådet och relationen till väst högre än sina ekonomiska intressen i Libyen och att den geopolitiska betydelse Syrien har för Ryssland innebär att Ryssland vill förhindra att de geopolitiska förutsättningarna i regionen ändras till fördel för USA och Europa, en sådan förändring skulle innebära en risk för att den makt som Ryssland kan utöva genom sina olje- och gastillgångar minskar. / In 2011 violence broke out in Libya and Syria with many civilian casualties. The UN Security Council made a decision in March 2011 authorizing a No-Fly Zone over Libya. Russia have maintained a clear standpoint regarding the non-interference in states internal affairs since long. Russia abstained in the Libya case which made it possible to authorize a humanitarian intervention. But regarding Syria, Russia has vetoed resolutions twice. Thus effectively blocking all efforts to make a humanitarian intervention possible. The purpose of this paper is to study if Russia’s actions can be explained from a realist theory perspective. The scientific question to be answered is: How did Russia’s interest affect their actions in the UN Security Council regarding the conflicts in Libya and Syria. The study is designed as a qualitative text analysis. It is performed by the use of indicators, logically deducted from the theory, to analyze meaningful contents in the texts of the empiric material. Realist theory in International Relations describes the actions of states and that they have interests. The result of the study is that Russia valued the principle of interventions authorized by the Security Council more than its economic interests in Libya and that the geopolitical importance of Syria means that Russia wants to prevent that the geopolitics in the region change advantageously for USA and Europe which would mean a risk that the power Russia can exercise through its oil and gas assets could diminish.

The main purpose of this thesis is to explore the oscillation between different identities and nationalist discourses during Hafez Al Assad era in Syria. Syrian Arab Republic has been facing with an identity crisis ever since its independence due to several dynamics. Throughout the decades, there emerged several different self-images of Syrians. The major clash subsists between loyalty to Arabness and Syrianness. In order to find out the perceptions of politically relevant elites concerning this clash and the roots of identity crisis, a fieldwork was conducted during the spring 2006 in Damascus. An exploration of the nationalist ideologies &ndash / Arab nationalism, Greater Syrian nationalism, Pan-Islamic nationalism and liberal nationalism &ndash / during the Hafez Al Assad&rsquo / s era in Syria gives us the clues of the identity crisis. Moreover, the insights of Syrian politically relevant intellectuals exemplify and explain the current debate on the identity crisis in Syria.

ABSTRACT SYRIAN ARMENIANS DURING THE LAST DECADES OF THE NINETEETNH AND THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURIES MemiS, Serife (Eroglu) MS, Department of Middle East Studies Supervisor: Prof. Dr. &Ouml / mer Turan December 2007, 161 pages This thesis analyses the situation of the Syrian Armenians during the last decades of the nineteenth and the first quarter of the twentieth centuries. The central position of the Provinces of Aleppo and Damascus, parts of today&rsquo / s Syria, for both the Armenian communities of Aleppo and Damascus and the Ottoman Empire are the main incentives that determine the focus of this study as Syrian Armenians. Apart from the representation of the social, economic, political, religious, cultural and educational life of the Armenian communities in the Provinces of Aleppo and Damascus, the thesis also includes information about the situation of them during the relocation process. Within this context, the thesis also includes information representing the issue of Armenian Question in a different aspect since untouched fields of research, the cases of Aleppine and Damascene Armenians, provide some similarities and differences with the Armenian community&rsquo / s situation in the Ottoman Empire before World War I and during the relocation process.

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the bilateral relations between Lebanon and Syria between the years 1989-2005. In the defined time period, the Lebanese-Syrian relations were characterized by the establishment and fall of the Syrian domination over Lebanon. This study focuses on this transformation in their relations and mainly questions how the Lebanese-Syrian relations were transformed, how it affected and in turn were affected by the broader regional setting. Accordingly, the thesis is consistent of four main parts. In each historically divided time period, the major determinants of the direction of their relations and the changes and continuities in regard to these determinants are investigated. In the first part, the study focuses on the historical evolution of their relations with due attention to the dispatchment of Lebanon from Greater Syria and post-independence period. In the second part, their relations are analyzed in the era of Lebanese civil war which also signifies the beginning of active and effective Syrian involvement in Lebanese affairs. The third part encompasses the period of unquestioned Syrian domination over Lebanon in the post-civil war period up until the year 2000. In the fourth part, the changes in the direction of their relations studied in relate to the role of changing international and regional environment in affecting their relations.

The Tanzimat period had been an era of political change and transformation for the Ottoman Empire as it introduced many new new tools in political arena, particularly to reach centralization and the whole period is widely debated in many successful studies. However, the implementation of the Tanzimat reforms in specific provinces are generally ignored. Similarly, 19th century civil turmoil in the Syrian provinces of the Ottoman Empire had been a subject that discussed frequently. However, in many studies the events are generally discussed only as a religious conflict between Muslims and Druzes rather than a reflection of a complex system of political and socio-economic factors. In this context, the role of the Tanzimat reforms are generally ignored. This study aims to adress these two points at the same time. First it focuses on the specific implementation of the Tanzimat reforms in Lebanon rather than the promised aspects of the package. It details how the reforms were implemented, why it was implemented in that specific form, what were the complaints and the results. Second, it tries to understand the civil war in Lebanon in terms of a complex web of state-society relations. It puts the state at the center of analysis and shows how the implementation of the reforms effected the factors that led to the civil war and its different dimensions.

<p>The Syrian de facto occupation of Lebanon since 1976 is usually interpreted as the expression of the Syrian regime's adherence to traditional power considerations, rather than to the ideology of the ruling Ba'th party. In particular since Syria originally intervened on the side of the pro-status quo Lebanese Christians, and helped them defeat the anti-status quo Lebanese Muslims and Palestinians. In other words, they intervened against its traditional allies. The central question posed in this study is: Why is Lebanon so important to Syria that it is willing to make large human and material sacrifices in order to retain its grip on this small strip of territory? The traditional answers to this question are not satisfactory; the need for an alternative approach is apparent. While not refuting the description of Syrian policies as being based on pragmatic considerations, this analysis attempts to show that Syrian policies toward Lebanon in fact originate in the fundamental values promoted by Ba'th ideology. By employing a cognitive theoretical approach, the perceptions held by the Syrian leadership at the time of Syrian intervention are taken into account. This approach allows a number of key images to emerge, notably the image of an external plot against the Arab nation; one of the cornerstones of Ba'th ideology. When studying the modern day relationship between Syria and Lebanon, the same focus on Arab unity and the historical brotherly ties between the two countries can be identified. Hafez al-Asad's death and the rise to power of his son, Bashar al-Asad, has not lead to a radical change in Syrian policy, rather it is apparent that the same considerations and the same underlying images still guide the Syrian decision-makers. The result is that although pragmatism guides Syrian policies, the ideology of the Ba'th party sets the frames for this pragmatism and that a traditional two-state model cannot be applied on the relationship between Syria and Lebanon. The central finding in this study is that the Syrian leadership will go to great lengths to ensure Lebanon stays Arab and preserve the last remains of Arab unity in the face of the Zionist enemy. In the struggle against Israel, Syria and Lebanon are to remain Brothers in Arms.</p>

Eine qualitativ vergleichende Studie: Vergleich der gesamten Problematik der Gewalt gegen Frauen in den zwei verschiedenen Kulturen Syrien und Deutschland. Vergleich der Gewalterfahrungen, Formen der Gewalt, Folgen der Gewalt und Maßnahmen von der Gewalt betroffener Frauen in den beiden Gesellschaften.

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