scholarly journals SYRIA IN A TORMENT: KEY ACTORS AND GEOPOLITICAL INTRIGUES

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Idongesit Oyosoro
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Proxy War ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Syrian Conflict ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
External Actors

Defined as the “worst humanitarian disaster since the end of the cold war,” the Syrian civil war has to date claimed heavy casualties, including over 8,000 documented killings of children under eighteen years of age. In a country of approximately 22 million people, the bloody and prolonged conflict has resulted in 7.6 million internally displaced persons and an additional 3.2 million refugees, as well as approximately 12.2 million people (more than 1 in 2 Syrians) in need of humanitarian aid to survive. This essay is an analysis of the Syrian conflict. Its aim is to depict and underline the various aspects of the conflict in Syria. The internal and external actors alongside the geopolitical intrigues and interests involved in this conflict shall be scrutinized. This essay thrives to rectify subsequent analytical mistakes of scholars who limit the conflict in Syria to one about a confrontation between Russia and the USA, or try to predict the conflict through that lens alone, simply because the most demonstrated rivalry about Syria as a geostrategic epiphenomena relies on the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Above and beyond the internal power struggle, the conflict has acquired the character of a proxy war in which international, regional and sub-national conflicts are fought out. The actors here treat the conflict as a zero-sum game, where success for one is automatically a defeat for the other. One bone of contention is the interpretation and enforcement of international norms, with the United States and other Western states backing the Syrian opposition while Russia, Iran and China support the Assad regime with trade and protection in the UN Security Council and, in the case of Russia, arms deliveries.Defined as the “worst humanitarian disaster since the end of the cold war,” the Syrian civil war has to date claimed heavy casualties, including over 8,000 documented killings of children under eighteen years of age. In a country of approximately 22 million people, the bloody and prolonged conflict has resulted in 7.6 million internally displaced persons and an additional 3.2 million refugees, as well as approximately 12.2 million people (more than 1 in 2 Syrians) in need of humanitarian aid to survive. This essay is an analysis of the Syrian conflict. Its aim is to depict and underline the various aspects of the conflict in Syria. The internal and external actors alongside the geopolitical intrigues and interests involved in this conflict shall be scrutinized. This essay thrives to rectify subsequent analytical mistakes of scholars who limit the conflict in Syria to one about a confrontation between Russia and the USA, or try to predict the conflict through that lens alone, simply because the most demonstrated rivalry about Syria as a geostrategic epiphenomena relies on the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Above and beyond the internal power struggle, the conflict has acquired the character of a proxy war in which international, regional and sub-national conflicts are fought out. The actors here treat the conflict as a zero-sum game, where success for one is automatically a defeat for the other. One bone of contention is the interpretation and enforcement of international norms, with the United States and other Western states backing the Syrian opposition while Russia, Iran and China support the Assad regime with trade and protection in the UN Security Council and, in the case of Russia, arms deliveries.

Russian Federation and the United States of America: geostrategic directions to manage the Ukrainian crisis

2019 ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Attarid Awadh Abdulhameed
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Ukrainian Crisis ◽  
Zero Sum

Ukrainia Remains of huge importance to Russian Strategy because of its Strategic importance. For being a privileged Postion in new Eurasia, without its existence there would be no logical resons for eastward Expansion by European Powers.  As well as in Connection with the progress of Ukrainian is no less important for the USA (VSD, NDI, CIA, or pentagon) and the European Union with all organs, and this is announced by John Kerry. There has always ben Russian Fear and Fear of any move by NATO or USA in the area that it poses a threat to  Russians national Security and its independent role and in funence  on its forces especially the Navy Forces. There for, the Crisis manyement was not Zero sum game, there are gains and offset losses, but Russia does not accept this and want a Zero Sun game because the USA. And European exteance is a Foot hold in Regin Which Russian sees as a threat to its national security and want to monopolize control in the strategic Qirim.

Cold War consumption and the marketing of childhood in the Soviet Union and the United States, 1950-1960

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Peacock
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global Discourse ◽  
The Cold War

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the relationship between childhood, consumption and the Cold War in 1950s America and the Soviet Union. The author argues that Soviet and American leaders, businessmen, and politicians worked hard to convince parents that buying things for their children offered the easiest way to raise good American and Soviet kids and to do their part in waging the economic battles of the Cold War. The author explores how consumption became a Cold War battleground in the late 1950s and suggests that the history of childhood and Cold War consumption alters the way we understand the conflict itself. Design/Methodology/Approach – Archival research in the USA and the Russian Federation along with close readings of Soviet and American advertisements offer sources for understanding the global discourse of consumption in the 1950s and 1960s. Findings – Leaders, advertisers, and propagandists in the Soviet Union and the USA used the same images in the same ways to sell the ethos of consumption to their populations. They did this to sell the Cold War, to bolster the status quo, and to make profits. Originality/Value – This paper offers a previously unexplored, transnational perspective on the role that consumption and the image of the child played in shaping the Cold War both domestically and abroad.

scholarly journals Current Nuclear Strategies and Arsenals of the United States of America and the Russian Federation

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-44
Author(s):  
Adam Potočňák
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Nuclear Forces ◽  
Nuclear Strategy ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

The article holistically analyses current strategies for the use and development of nuclear forces of the USA and Russia and analytically reflects their mutual doctrinal interactions. It deals with the conditions under which the U.S. and Russia may opt for using their nuclear weapons and reflects also related issues of modernization and development of their actual nuclear forces. The author argues that both superpowers did not manage to abandon the Cold War logic or avoid erroneous, distorted or exaggerated assumptions about the intentions of the other side. The text concludes with a summary of possible changes and adaptations of the American nuclear strategy under the Biden administration as part of the assumed strategy update expected for 2022.

scholarly journals CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES REGARDING THE EXTENSION OF THE “NEW START” TREATY: CAN THE USA AND RUSSIA PRESERVE EXISTING STRATEGIC ARMS CONTROL?

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (4/2020) ◽  
pp. 123-149
Author(s):  
Marina Kostic
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Strategic Stability ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Security Challenge ◽  
The Cold War

Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on measures for further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms (“New START”) is the last pillar of the arms control regime on which the end of the Cold War and the new world order rested. Its expiration on 5 February 2021 is a top security challenge and indicates a possible new strategic arms race. However, can the United States and Russia still preserve the existing strategic arms control by extending the Treaty for another five years? What are the prospects, the opportunities and obstacles for this extension? What are the most pressing issues USA and Russia face with in order to preserve strategic arms control and are they willing to do so? In order to answer to these research questions author analyses several key issues that are of paramount importance for extension of the New START: nuclear modernization processes, invention of new weapons and emergence of new warfare domains; transparency and verification and broader confidence building measures; missile defence and prompt global strike; tactical nuclear weapons in Europe and Asia; general US-Russia relations which include question of democratic capacity; and broader influence of this Treaty on nuclear non-proliferation regime. By using content and discourse analysis author concludes that, although it is obvious that the extension of the New START would be primarily in favour of Russia and that the USA has not much to gain, the character of strategic stability in the Third Nuclear Age gives reasons to believe that the New START will be extended for another five years.

scholarly journals The United Nations: Implications of Soft Power

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-65
Author(s):  
Sara Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War

The United Nations is often looked to for guidance in conflict prevention and intervention, but its lack of hard power has proven to be extremely limiting. Although the United Nations has been a major improvement from the League of Nations, its ability to maintain world peace is restricted by the aspirations of its member states. The Security Council is especially significant, made up of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia. Each state in the Security Council has the ability to veto any initiative proposed by the United Nations. Additionally, the United Nations cannot take action without leadership from one or more of its states, and many states are hesitant to sacrifice their military resources even in the event of major human rights violations. This hesitancy to intervene is especially evident in the case study of the Rwandan genocide, but can also be seen in the Cold War and the Syrian Civil War, amongst other conflicts.

scholarly journals Installation “Breakthrough”, Implementation and Memorialisation of the “Cold War” in the USA

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-64
Author(s):  
V.E. Dergacheva ◽  
Yu.G. Chernyshov
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The United States ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Cold War

Using the installation “Breakthrough” as an example, the article examines the widespread in the United States assessments and methods of memorializing the results of the Cold War. The authors note that the thesis of a US victory in the Cold War was central to official US political rhetoric in the early 1990s. This is confirmed by the politics of memory — in particular, the creation of the installation “Breakthrough”, the establishment of the commemorative medal “Cold War Victory Medal”, etc. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is considered the most symbolic event of the end of the Cold War. One of the fragments of this wall is called “The Breakthrough”, it is now in Westminster College in Fulton (Missouri), where W. Churchill in 1946 pronounced his famous speech and where (in a symbolic sense) the Cold War began. Installation “Breakthrough”, being a symbol of the beginning and end of ideological confrontation, carries a certain ideological message — it is a “breakthrough to freedom” and victory in the “cold war”. However, by the early 2000s, when passions subsided in society and wider access to not only American, but also Soviet archival documents was opened up, more ba-lanced assessments of the causes and results of the Cold War began to appear in American scientific circles. Some American historians started talking about the common victory of the USA and the USSR over the ideological confrontation, which could develop into a dangerous “hot war.” Globalization also influenced the perception of the outcome of the Cold War: this confrontation is assessed by some American researchers as a natural stage in the development of international relations, which led to a new redistribution of centers of influence on the map of the “multipolar” world.

scholarly journals The image of the phantom threat to children by the United States in Soviet historical cinema of the cold war period

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
S. Belov ◽  
A. Zhidchenko
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Violent Behavior ◽  
The United States ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Cold War

The presented study is devoted to studying the practice of constructing the image of a phantom threat to children from the side of an external enemy through historical discourse in the cinema of the USSR and the USA during the Cold War. The aim of this work is to identify common and specific features in the approaches of filmmakers of the two countries to the formation of the image of a phantom threat for children from the side of an external enemy. The research methodology is built on the basis of a combination of historical genetic, comparative and descriptive, as well as content analysis. The author comes to the conclusion that in American films the historical texture in the framework of creating the image of the “Soviet threat” was used only occasionally. For the most part, the relevant plots were included in the cinematic description of actual military conflicts (for example, the war in Afghanistan), the futurological conflict of America and the USSR, or their confrontation in line with an alternative history. Soviet filmmakers were limited in terms of positioning the "American threat" by a series of unspoken rules. For example, the violent behavior of American characters toward children was described primarily verbally. Filmmakers from the United States had more freedom in terms of visualizing violence against children and adolescents. In addition, Americans could more freely and widely disclose the topic of “crimes” attributed to the Soviet side in the context of actual military conflicts. The presence of the indicated restrictions forced Soviet filmmakers to actively turn to historical subjects. However, the specifics of the origin of the basis of the corresponding narrative, which was played by foreign fiction, largely leveled its effectiveness from a political point of view. The literary sources of Soviet films were originally created by American writers for US citizens, whereby their content was saturated with positive images of America and its inhabitants. The latter often concerned the positioning of childhood, especially in a nostalgic manner. A natural consequence of this was the erosion of the negative images promoted by filmmakers. The theoretical significance of the work lies in summarizing the image of the phantom threat to children by the United States in Soviet historical cinema of the cold war period.

scholarly journals The Reincarnation of the Cold War

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
Trevor Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Second World ◽  
The U.S

This paper describes the complex challenges to present-day state relations between the United States and the Russian Federation, and how the worsening of state relations between these two powers is indicative of the reincarnation of the Cold War of the 20th century. In describing the complexities of the U.S.-Russia relationship, this paper explores three contemporary international issues that have led to its aggravation. First, it examines the apparent Russian hacking of the U.S. Democratic Party during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and how such interference is comparable to that which occurred during the 20th century Cold War era. Secondly, it analyzes how the Syrian Civil War, characterized by the United States and Russia supporting opposing sides of the conflict, shares a likeness to the proxy wars of the 20th century Cold War. Lastly, it describes how the Russian annexation of Crimea, and the American-led response to it, are reminiscent of the Soviet and American practices of expanding the limits of their own power while trying to limit that of their rival following the Second World War.

Cinema politics and ideology of the USA during the Cold War

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (12-1) ◽  
pp. 84-97
Author(s):  
Kirill Yudin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Cultural Space ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Media Texts ◽  
The Cold War

The article analyzes the specifics of American ideology and cultural space, its influence on the activities of state and public institutions, the position of representatives of the theater and cinema corporation in the United States under conditions of control and censorship, propaganda pressure. Conclusions are drawn about the consequences of forced segregation of filmmakers into «friends» and «strangers» - the need to adapt in an atmosphere of «cold» information and ideological challenges, the examination of media-texts (films) and their images for political reliability. The ambiguity and inconsistency of cinema policy, allowing the realization of opportunities for legal cooperation and interaction with the opposition, is shown.

Soviet Americanists, Academic Exchanges, the KGB and the Promotion of Video Media from Capitalist America during the Cold War

2021 ◽  
pp. 361-380
Author(s):  
Sergei Zhuk
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Cultural Products ◽  
Popular Films ◽  
Television Shows ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Cold War

This essay is an attempt, made by using the personal stories of Soviet Americani-sts, to study the role of Soviet academic visitors, approved and supervised by the KGB, in promoting the cultural products from the USA - mainly such visual media as films and television - in the USSR during the period of academic exchanges after 1959. During their visits to the United States, Soviet Americanists used their leisure time not only for sightseeing, visiting museums and shopping, but also for various forms of cultural entertainment, from watching films and television shows to visiting concerts of classical and popular music. These experiences eventually affected the recommenda-tions about American cultural products, which Soviet visitors submitted to the KGB and their supervisors after their return home. During the 1970s and the 1980s, Soviet admi-nistration benefited from such useful advice about American popular films and televi-sion programs, which could be promoted in the USSR. Even the KGB administration in the Soviet Union studied the lists of recommendations made by those scholars, and used them for promoting the "progressive, humanistic" American cultural products among local Communist and Komsomol leaders for the education of Soviet audience.

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