The Syrian conflict through the theories of constructivism and realism Essay Example for Free

The Syrian conflict through the theories of constructivism and realism Essay This essay aims to delineate and elucidate the Syrian conflict through the theories of constructivism and realism. Particular attention will be paid to the origin of the Syrian Civil War, along with the major actors involved in this regional, and now international, conflict. â€Å"The people want to topple the regime!† was the anti-government graffiti on the wall of a local school in Daraa city painted by a group of Syrian children on March 2011. Those children were arrested and tortured by the local security authorities (Diehl, 2012: 7). This act eventually led to an anti-governmental uprising due to the outrageous reaction of the community over children’s mistreatment after incarceration by the local security authorities. The uprising demanded the release of children, justice, freedom as well as equality for all people. At the core, these peaceful demonstrations were considered to be against the sectarian and family dictatorship because the political power was mainly held by the Alawite elite (Diehl, 2012). In response to these demonstrations, the Syrian government planned to enforce security forces for the protestors to suppress them. The deadly aggression used by the government to oppose dissent led to protests across the country calling for the president to resign. Violence soon escalated as the government battled hundreds of rebel brigades. This rebellion further turned into a full-fledged civil war between the Free Syrian army and the Syrian regime (Thompson, 2016). The main allegation that the Syrian r egime associated with the protestors was that they were Islamic Al- Qaeda’s extremist terrorist gangs who were supported and funded by the various countries such as Turkey, Qatar, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as the United States of America which they try to seek peace with Israel (Sommier, 2014). Similarly, the same Syrian regime who was supported by Russia, China and Iran, was present in the front fire line with Israel (Fisher, 2012). Since then, the regional and international intervention has proven to be a key factor in the power struggle as the government and opposition have received financial, political and military support. This has directly intensified the fighting and allowed it to continue; Syria is effectively being used as a proxy battlefield (Wimmen and Asseburg, 2012). The death toll as recorded and presented by the Syrian center for policy research approximately totaled at 470,000 as a result of ongoing conflict until February 2016. Due to the intensification and spread of fighting, a dire humanitarian crisis was evident since 4.8 million people tried to take refuge abroad and 6.1 million people were internally displaced as per the records of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It has also been reported by the Syrian Network for Human Rights that since 2011, more than 117,000 people have been either disappeared or detained by the governmental forces. In the detention, ill-treatment and torture are two rampant things that have also resulted in the death of thousands of people in detention. In addition to all the crisis events going on, ISIS (Islamic State) made more complications by the widespread and systematic violations. This was achieved by ISIS through targeting civilians with artillery, kidnappings, executions, using child ren as soldiers, and torture (Human Rights Watch, 2016).