The US Foreign Policy on Syria: An examination of the Humanitarian Crisis

Abstract

This thesis examines the repercussions of US foreign policy on Arab countries, specifically on Syria. Unfortunately, the Arab Spring did not produce the desired outcome for Syrians. Syria has gone from peace to chaos and terrorism since 2011. Syrians desired democracy; therefore, they asked that Assad go down. Assad has no such intentions. Syrians have been exposed to a murderous conflict at the hands of the Dictator Bashar al-Assad for more than a decade. Since The basic goal of US, foreign policy is to create a safe and democratic world. This thesis looks at how American policy evolved during the Syrian Civil War, which resulted in the world's worst refugee crisis, among other humanitarian crisis. The United States, led by President Barack Obama, chose to participate only for humanitarian grounds. Obama's participation in the early years of Syria's civil war was based on severe declarations and sanctions. The Obama administration's controversial red line threat decision, which implied that the US was not militarily committed to intervene in the fight. This prepared the ground for Assad to continue his aggressions against his people, which went mostly unpunished until President Trump ordered airstrikes in response to chemical-weapons attacks in 2018. Throughout the Syrian crisis, US foreign policy has essentially remained unchanged in terms of regime change. While there is evidence that the US has been seeking to remove Assad from office, there has been relatively little action taken to achieve this aim or aid Assad's take down from Syria's president. This research aims to characterize the United States' foreign policy on Syria, assess the impact of US engagement on Syrian crisis and analyze the causes and consequences of the Syrian Civil War. For seeking the aim, the study addresses the main question on that subject: What has the United States done to address the Syrian crisis?. To answer the main question, the study needs to examine the following sub questions in three chapters: What are the basic goals of US foreign policy in the M.E and Syria? What were the roots and repercussions of the Arab Spring? How was the US response to the Syrian Civil War and its Humanitarian crises?. I used one methodology in each chapter; the first chapter I used V the power transition theory, the second chapter I used the liberalism theory and in the third chapter I used the hegemonic stability theory