... mistakes and blunders of the US Middle East policies notwithstanding, remained the unquestionable external hegemon of the Arab world. Russia could hope for only very modest progress in dealing with select Arab nations like Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.
The relative stability of the region started to crumble in the wake of the Arab Spring. The changing situation presented Moscow both new challenges and new opportunities. On the one hand, the Kremlin had reasons to be concerned about a spillover effect of the Arab Spring, particularly in the post-Soviet Central Asia, but also ...
... works are dedicated to the issue of violence? Not many.
The Iran–Iraq War took two or three times the number of lives that the Syrian Civil War has.
The growing significance of violence as a problematic issue is overlapping with another important social ... ... how many such incidents actually took place.
The suppression of the Houthi insurgency in Yemen in 2004–2010 (i.e. before the Arab Spring) resulted in several tens of thousands of human casualties.
All this caused a barely audible murmur of discontent ...
... Council resolution can be violated or interpreted in a very liberal way.
Third. If Russia remains an idle bystander watching the Arab Spring from the sideline, the chaos, instability and terrorism generated in the Arab world will ultimately spill over Russia’s ... ... influence in the region.
The practical application of this new approach was, of course, the Moscow engagement into the civil war in Syria. In this bloody and protracted conflict, Moscow demonstrated much more than its readiness to oppose what was perceived as ...
... of oil prices, which put into question most of the economic and social development plans of energy producing Arab nations.
Recently we have seen a more active interaction between Russian and Saudi leaders though major differences in approaching the Syrian situation remain unresolved.
If in the West the Arab Spring was initially met by many with hopes and even with enthusiasm, in Russia the political mainstream from the very beginning was expressing deep skepticism and concerns about the likely outcomes of the ongoing regional transformation. Furthermore,...
... the timeline, geography, facts, context, and history concerning the withdrawal and the rise of ISIS makes this abundantly clear and provable beyond any reasonable doubt. Ultimately, Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's policies and the dynamics of Syria's raging civil war are the clear catalysts and drivers behind current crises with ISIS both in Syria and Iraq.
By Brian E. Frydenborg (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter @bfry1981) December 16th, 2015
Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse ...
... focused on the Middle East. Tunisia stands out against that nightmarish background as a bright spot and the only country where the Arab Spring was relatively successful. (Many will say that the night is still young, but then it’s all the more imperative ... ... problem”) – is symbolic as well. In fact, this prize was awarded to Vladimir Putin, who had suggested an elegant plan for Syria’s chemical disarmament, which at that time made it possible to avoid an armed intervention. The OPCW was just lucky ...
... Russian fighter-bomber jet that Turkey alleges violated its airspace. The Russian jet had been bombing Turkmen positions/villages—part of a series of Russian bombings in recent days that have targeted Turkmen—on the border area of Turkey and Syria. Turkey is supporting these Turkmen rebels against Assad that Russia is bombing, and had previously asked Russia not to bomb them. Turkey also claims it warned the plane ten times before it fired, but Russia denies this. The alleged violation of ...
... years. Numerous terrorist organizations together form a disparate and splintered but significant proportion of the key forces in the conflict. Regional and Western powers have contributed to this process as well. On the other hand, the developments in Syria that followed the Arab Spring had their own domestic roots. In order to achieve a successful resolution of the Syrian crisis we not only need the destruction of radical underground forces but also a keen insight into its social and political roots.
The Syrian state
The ...
... are able to strike anywhere, including Russia itself.
By Brian E. Frydenborg (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter @bfry1981) October 2nd, 2015
@ValkryV
Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse
AMMAN — Anyone who’s been paying attention to the Syrian vortex of death, and Russia’s role in this vortex, knows that Putin’s motivations are not terribly difficult to understand and are, in fact, obvious. They generally run on three levels:
1.) Preserve the regime of Bashar al-Assad, ...
... in Syria of many of the country’s own people who wanted Syria’s President (dictator) Bashar al-Assad to step down so they could change the system and have more freedom. They were inspired by their Arab brethren in the happier days of the Arab Spring in 2011. This was, generally, a struggle for freedom, representation, human rights, and democracy in a country ruled by an authoritarian, repressive, undemocratic Syrian regime with an Alawite (a word describing a subsect of Shia Islam that is only roughly 12% of Syria’s population) ruling family and many other Alawites at the top, ruling over mostly Sunni Muslims, though the regime and its supporters are ...
