Russia’s Military Intervention in Syria: Its Roots, Challenges, and Opportunities for the Kremlin

• Author / Creator

  Basar, Christian

• This thesis investigates the reasons for and consequences of Russia’s combat mission in Syria, which started in September 2015. Through the analysis of Russian and Western sources, parallels are drawn between the Kremlin’s current campaign and the Soviet Union’s use of Syria as a base in its ideological conflict with the West during the Cold War. Syria provided an opportunity for both the Soviet and modern Russian governments to project power, primarily through military deployments and diplomacy. It is concluded that the success of modern Russia’s Syria operation (i.e. saving Syria from “regime change”) has forced the Western governments, who have also taken part in the Syrian conflict, to consider Russia as an important global power.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Syria
  • Russia
  • Intervention
  • Syrian Civil War
  • Russian foreign policy
  • Russian strategy

• Graduation date

  Spring 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-bgnf-kv70

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.