US-Russia Relations in Syrian Conflict in the Mirror of Internal Political Debate within the Second Obama Administration (2012-2016)
Nadtochey Yurii Ivanovich, Khristenko Dmitrii Nikolaevich
MGIMO University
Yaroslavl State Medical University
Submitted: 10.09.2021
Abstract. The research objective is as follows: to identify specifics of US-Russia interaction during the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, taking into account internal aspects of decision-making process by the second administration of Barack Obama. The main focus of the study concentrated around periods of Syrian conflict and its dynamic. This approach made possible to find out how flexible US’s and Russia’s positions were when it came to making decision on intervention in Syria, especially in terms of scale and instruments required for that purpose. Scientific originality of the study lies in new methodological approach towards great power politics analysis in regional conflicts. US behavior during the Syrian con-flict was placed at the core of the study. Levels of analysis were used in order to find out how different factors (both internal and external) influenced decisions made by Obama administration. The findings are as follows: contrary to demands of war protagonists who called the US president to intervene in Syria, Barack Obama vigorously resisted the decision to use force against regime of B. Assad in order to avoid mistakes made by George W. Bush, who dragged the United States into a protracted war in Iraq.
Key words and phrases: конфликт в Сирии, Ближний Восток, российско-американские отношения, вторая администрация Б. Обамы, внутриполитическая борьба, conflict in Syria, Middle East, Russian-American relations, B. Obama’s second administration, internal political struggle
Open the whole article in PDF format. Free PDF-files viewer can be downloaded .
References:
Lo B. Vneshnyaya politika Rossii pri Vladimire Putine. Avantyurizm ili realizm. 2018. URL: https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/bobo_lo_russia_foreign_policy_ru_2018.pdf
Sushentsov A. A. Vysvobozhdenie Ameriki. Preimushchestva oslableniya global'nogo liderstva SShA // Rossiya v global'noi politike. 2013. № 5.
A bill to restrict funds related to escalating United States military involvement in Syria // Congressional Record. Senate. June 20, 2013.
Address to the Nation on the Situation in Syria. September 10, 2013 // Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Barack Obama. 2013. Book II. July 1 to December 31, 2013. Washington: United States Government Publishing Office, 2018.
Fitzgerald D., Ryan D. Obama, US Foreign Policy and the Dilemmas of Intervention. N. Y.: Palgrave, 2014.
Hearing to Receive Testimony on U.S. National Security Challenges and Ongoing Military Operations. Committee on Armed Services. September 22, 2016. Washington.
Kupchan Ch. The End of the American Era U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century. N. Y.: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007.
McFaul M. Putin, Putinism, and Domestic Determinants of Russian Foreign Policy // International Security. 2020. Vol. 45. № 2.
Neoclassical Realism, the State, and Foreign Policy / ed. by S. E. Lobell, N. M. Ripsman, J. W. Taliaferro. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Press, 2009.
Security Council. Resolution 2118 (2013). 27 September 2013 // Yearbook of the United Nations. 2013. Vol. 67.
Selim G. The United States and the Arab Spring: The Dynamics of Political Engineering // Arab Studies Quarterly. 2013. Vol. 35. № 3.
Shambaugh D. Assessing the US "Pivot" to Asia // Strategic Studies Quarterly. 2013. Vol. 7. № 2.
Stent A. US-Russia Relations in the Second Obama Administration // Survival. 2012. Vol. 54. № 6.
Lo B. Vneshnyaya politika Rossii pri Vladimire Putine. Avantyurizm ili realizm. 2018. URL: https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/bobo_lo_russia_foreign_policy_ru_2018.pdf
Sushentsov A. A. Vysvobozhdenie Ameriki. Preimushchestva oslableniya global'nogo liderstva SShA // Rossiya v global'noi politike. 2013. № 5.
A bill to restrict funds related to escalating United States military involvement in Syria // Congressional Record. Senate. June 20, 2013.
Address to the Nation on the Situation in Syria. September 10, 2013 // Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Barack Obama. 2013. Book II. July 1 to December 31, 2013. Washington: United States Government Publishing Office, 2018.
Fitzgerald D., Ryan D. Obama, US Foreign Policy and the Dilemmas of Intervention. N. Y.: Palgrave, 2014.
Hearing to Receive Testimony on U.S. National Security Challenges and Ongoing Military Operations. Committee on Armed Services. September 22, 2016. Washington.
Kupchan Ch. The End of the American Era U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century. N. Y.: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007.
McFaul M. Putin, Putinism, and Domestic Determinants of Russian Foreign Policy // International Security. 2020. Vol. 45. № 2.
Neoclassical Realism, the State, and Foreign Policy / ed. by S. E. Lobell, N. M. Ripsman, J. W. Taliaferro. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Press, 2009.
Security Council. Resolution 2118 (2013). 27 September 2013 // Yearbook of the United Nations. 2013. Vol. 67.
Selim G. The United States and the Arab Spring: The Dynamics of Political Engineering // Arab Studies Quarterly. 2013. Vol. 35. № 3.
Shambaugh D. Assessing the US "Pivot" to Asia // Strategic Studies Quarterly. 2013. Vol. 7. № 2.
Stent A. US-Russia Relations in the Second Obama Administration // Survival. 2012. Vol. 54. № 6.
Русский
