The Syrian Civil War - 2000 Words

The precursor to the Syrian Civil War dates back to when Hafez al-Assad, a Baathist, seized power through a coup d’à ©tat in 1970. Since 1970 Syria is a semi-presidential republic, with Bashar al-Assad as the current president and head of state. Conversely, Hafez groomed his charismatic son, Bassel, as the future president of Syria, while Bashar lived under the shadow of his elder brother. Bashar in comparison to his brother was an intellectual and exhibited a quiet and reserved demeanour. However, in 1994, Bassel was killed in a car accident, and as a result, Bashar, who was a physician specialized in ophthalmology, was recalled back to Damascus from England. Bashar was then quickly enrolled in a military academy in Homs and rose to the†¦show more content†¦Antigovernment movements broke out in early 2011 with the Arab Spring. The Syrian government has used brute force, even illegal chemical weapons, to suppress protests. Armed resistance to the regime arose in the summer as soldiers defected from Assad and established the Free Syrian Army consequently. The main belligerents consist of the Syrian Army, the Syrian National Defense Force, Shabiha, Hezbollah, and Iran, whilst the opposing parties consist of Syrian National Council, Syrian National Coalition, Islamic Front, Mujahideen, Al-Nusra, Syrian Kurds, and Islamic State of Iraq (ISIL) and the Levant. International reactions in regards to the Syrian Civil War vary from support of al-Assad’s regime to advocating the government dissolve. Currently, the Assad regime controls Damascus, and most of the provincial capitals in the West of Syria, whilst the rebellion has large swathes of land to the East and North. The Syrian Civil War has evoked divided opinion from international leaders, with Western powers such as the United States, supporting the rebels, whilst superpowers Russia and China support Assad’s regime. As a result, a contemporary proxy war has emerged. This paper will e xamine the different perspectives global leaders have on the Syrian Civil War, and consequently their actions towards the conflict. The Western powers discussed in this treatise are some of the key nations enveloped in the conflict: United States of America, Israel, and