scholarly journals Middle Eastern Proxy Wars Waged on the Background of Civil Wars

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 27-44
Author(s):  
Mirela Atanasiu
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Law ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Proxy War ◽  
External Actors

The paper argues that proxy war is an increasingly often used tool in the Middle East, in the already conflicted territories where international involvement is not only enabled, but also attracted and encouraged by the international law for the purpose of region’s securitization. Thus, the paper’s aim is to increase awareness on the fact that the Middle Eastern countries passing through civil war periods and accepting external actors to deal with their crises do not only become fertile territories for proxy wars, but the intervening actors start pursuing their own interests beyond the host country’s interest in resolving the conflict.

scholarly journals The Syrian Conflict: Regional Dimensions and Implications

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherko Kirmanj
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Regional Effect ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Proxy War ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
Syrian Conflict ◽  
External Actors

The Syrian conflict which started in March 2011 is well into its third year and its dimensions and implications are steadily moving beyond Syrian borders and the broader Middle East. Syria’s uprising has developed into a civil war between government forces and the opposition, motivated primarily by internal and external actors’ strategic and at times existential interests. This article examines the implications and dimensions of the Syrian crisis for the major actors in the region, including Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, the Gulf States, Israel and the Kurds. It argues that pitting a Shiite Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah axis against a Sunni Turkey-Gulf states axis is the most significant geo-political regional effect of the Syrian crisis. What is more devastating is not the division of the region along sectarian lines but the proxy war between the Shiite and Sunni factions.  

The Contemporary Middle East

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanford R. Silverburg ◽  
David Ettinger
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Regional Stability ◽  
Nuclear Age ◽  
International Attention ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Historical Controversies

As historic issues continue to fester, historical controversies resurface with renewed intensity, and new threats to global security arise, the contemporary Middle East remains a hotbed of activity and the epicenter of international attention. Even as the “Arab Spring” has transformed the complexion of the region, reoccurring issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict and Sunni-Shia divide still languish. Civil wars in Syria and Yemen convulse the area, Iraq struggles to reconstitute itself, and Iran moves ominously into the nuclear age. Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, internecine conflict, and civil war have made the area a veritable crucible that has jeopardized regional stability and resurrected superpower rivalries.

Civil War and Terrorism: A Call for Further Theory Building

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charity Butcher
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
The Media ◽  
September 11 Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Terrorist Acts ◽  
External Actors

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, terrorism has gained increased prominence in both scholarship and the media. While international terrorist acts are quite visible and highly publicized, such attacks represent only one type of terrorism within the international system. In fact, a very large number of acts of terrorism take place within the context of civil wars. Given the great disparity in power in most civil wars, it is not surprising that terrorism might be seen as a tactic that is often used by insurgent groups, who may have few resources at their disposal to fight a much stronger opponent. There is a clear linkage between the concepts of terrorism and civil war, yet until recently scholars have largely approached civil war and terrorism separately. Recent literature has attempted to specifically map the intersection of terrorism and civil war, recognizing the extent to which the two overlap. As expected, the findings suggest that civil war and terrorism are highly linked. Other scholars have endeavoured to explain why rebel groups in some civil wars use terrorism, while others do not. Further research focuses on how governments respond to terrorism during civil war or on how the decisions of external actors to intervene in civil wars are affected by the use of terrorism by insurgent groups. These studies show that there is too little theorizing on the relationship between civil war and terrorism; while scholars are finally considering these concepts collectively, the full nature of their relationship remains unexplored. Additional research is needed to better understand the various ways that terrorism and civil war overlap, interact, and mutually affect other important international and domestic political processes.

Civil Wars, Scientific Study of

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Idean Salehyan ◽  
Clayton L. Thyne
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Conflict Duration ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
The Government ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
External Actors

Civil war is an armed conflict between the state and another organized domestic party over a contested political incompatibility, which results in a number of casualties exceeding a certain threshold for both parties. Attempts to operationalize these criteria have produced many data sets, which conceptualize civil war as distinct from one-sided violence, organized crime, and communal fighting. Civil wars are devastating for states experiencing them, their neighbors, and the entire global community. Combatant and civilian deaths, rape, massive refugee flight, negative impacts on economy and infrastructure, spread of infectious diseases, global spread of illegal narcotics, and the promotion of terrorism are all consequences of civil wars. Theories explaining why civil wars occur focus on objectives of the rebels, ability of rebels to successfully challenge the government, influence of external actors on interactions between the government and the opposition, external financing of potential rebel groups, and impact of a state’s neighbors on the likelihood of civil conflict or how neighboring conflicts and refugee communities serve as breeding grounds for cross-border rebel movements. Conflicts persist until neither side believes that it can achieve unilateral victory and continued fighting is costly. Governments are more likely to win early when they have large armies, but time to government victory increases when they are faced with secessionist rebels and when external parties are involved. Meanwhile, external mediation diminishes informational and credible commitment problems during bargaining and reduces conflict duration. Promising directions for future research on civil war include geographic disaggregation, survey research, and computational/agent-based modeling.

scholarly journals EFEKTIVITAS SANKSI DEWAN KEAMANAN PERSERIKATAN BANGSA-BANGSA TERHADAP KONFLIK BERSENJATA DI SURIAH

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teddy Nurcahyawan ◽  
Lauw Wisnu
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Security Council Resolution ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Step Down

As a soverign state in the Middle East, Syria has received badly effect of Arab Spring revolution. Thousand of students launched demonstration claiming Bashar Al-Assad to step down. In response to it, Bashar Al-Assad attacked the prodemocracy students by arresting and torturing them. This arms conflict has not only brought many civilians as victims of civil war but involved some other foreign states as well. To avoid matters worse, Security Council of United Nations has issued a Resolution Number 2328/2016 to give sanctions affirming Bashar-Assad to have violated international humanitarian law. The question comes up whether or not this resolution could present the effectiveness of the sanctions. This research has revealed that the Security Council Resolution is effective and Syria has complied with it in line with the international law.  

The Contemporary Middle East

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanford R. Silverburg
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Regional Stability ◽  
Nuclear Age ◽  
International Attention ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Historical Controversies

As historic issues continue to fester, historical controversies resurface with renewed intensity, and new threats to global security arise, the contemporary Middle East remains a hotbed of activity and the epicenter of international attention. Even as the “Arab Spring” has transformed the complexion of the region, reoccurring issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Sunni-Shia divide still languish. Civil wars in Syria and Yemen convulse the area, Iraq struggles to reconstitute itself, and Iran moves ominously into the nuclear age. Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, internecine conflict, and civil war have made the area a veritable crucible that has jeopardized regional stability and resurrected superpower rivalries.

How Civil Wars End: The International System, Norms, and the Role of External Actors

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 127-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Morjé Howard ◽  
Alexandra Stark
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
International System ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
War Termination ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
External Actors

Historically, civil wars ended in one-sided victory. With the end of the Cold War, however, the very nature of how civil wars end shifted: wars became two times more likely to terminate in negotiated settlement than in victory. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the proportion of victories has increased, especially for civil wars that include a terrorist group; wars are also ending less frequently. Why would civil war termination vary by time period? The literature on civil wars looks to three basic types of causes: domesticstructural factors, bargaining dynamics, and types of international intervention. Current explanations cannot account for why civil wars would end differently in different time periods because, as Kenneth Waltz might say, they are “reductionist” in nature. Material and ideational factors constitute the international political environment, which varies in different time periods. This environment drives outside actors' normative strategies of viewing victory, negotiation, or stabilization as the appropriate solution to civil war. These norms, in turn, directly affect how civil wars end. A novel, three-part methodological approach using quantitative analysis, case studies, and original content analysis demonstrates that civil wars tend to end the way external actors think they ought to end.

scholarly journals SYRIA: TERRORISM AS A CATALYST FOR PROXY WAR – THE CASE OF THE CIVIL WAR

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 22-38
Author(s):  
Patrycja Patrycja
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Smart Power ◽  
Terrorist Organizations ◽  
Regional Powers ◽  
Hard Power ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Proxy War ◽  
General Meaning

The general meaning of “proxy war” is the pursuit of one’s interests exploiting other actors. Measures to this end can be implemented in two ways: through hard and soft power. As far as countering the activities of terrorist organizations is concerned, it can be seen that self-interest is placed above efforts against terrorism. The civil war in Syria and the activities of terrorist organizations have become grounds for greater involvement of global powers in the struggle for gaining influence in the country. This paper aims to show the actions of global and regional powers and other state actors taken in an attempt to assert power and influence under the guise of the fight against terrorism. The paper is divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part discusses aspects related to Josepha Nye’s concept of “smart power” and the notions of “proxy war” and “proxy activities”. The practical part discusses the activities of international actors pursuing their interests through official involvement in the fight against Daesh in the Syrian territory. Keywords: proxy war, Middle East, soft power, hard power, Daesh, Syria

scholarly journals Rentier state as an obstacle to development in the Middle East

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Andrzej Guzowski
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Arabian Peninsula ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Economic Structure ◽  
International Market ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Rentier States ◽  
External Actors

Many Middle Eastern countries, especially the ones in Arabian Peninsula, are well-known for being rich with oil and gas. While it could be considered a blessing by many, it is becoming more and more apparent that the abundance of natural resources in the region is a double-edged sword and a form of a natural resource trap. Many countries have become so-called “rentier states”, funding their operations and their very structures by renting their resources to external actors. While it may seem like a profitable political move at first, said overreliance conserved the structure of economies in the Middle Eastern, never forcing the countries to develop effectively, thus making most of the produced goods, other than oil and gas, uncompetitive on the international market. Long term, it may prove disastrous for the Middle East as eventually the resources are going to get exhausted and said countries will be left with nothing but an economic structure unadjusted to the 21stcentury.

scholarly journals Cyclical Youth-Led Conflict as an Early Warning Indicator

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-25
Author(s):  
Michelle Legassicke
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
World Bank ◽  
International Community ◽  
Weak State ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Sustainable Peace ◽  
External Actors ◽  
World Development

The dynamics of conflict are shifting. In the 2011 World Development Report, the World Bank stated that conflicts are now increasingly cyclical and intractable events; 90 percent of the civil wars that occurred in the 2000s were fought within countries that had experienced a domestic conflict in the past 30 years (World Bank, 2011). Countries are more likely to experience cycles of violence due to the persistence of weak state structures that cannot extend their reach into peripheral regions, leading to local instability (Kingston, 2004). Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the international community observed several states – in which external actors provided 50 percent of those states’ overall revenues – relapse into civil war (Call, 2012). Given the significant investment by the international community in peacebuilding projects in post-conflict states – whether democratic reforms, economic reforms, capacity building, or sustainable development – there needs to be a significant increase in research focused on civil war recurrence, as the trajectory of post-conflict states cannot be guaranteed without sustainable peace.

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