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Syria and the Great Powers (1946-1958): How Western Power Politics Pushed the Country Toward the Soviet Union
[journal article]
Abstract This paper reconstructs the political history of the Syrian Arab Republic from the time of
the country's emergence as an independent state in 1946 to the merger with Egypt to form
the United Arab Republic in 1958. Two main sources of documentary evidence are brought
to add to this analysis: first... view more
This paper reconstructs the political history of the Syrian Arab Republic from the time of
the country's emergence as an independent state in 1946 to the merger with Egypt to form
the United Arab Republic in 1958. Two main sources of documentary evidence are brought
to add to this analysis: firstly, declassified British government sources are utilized;
secondly, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) database on arms
exports to the Middle East is used to back up the descriptive analysis of Western strategic
interests in the Middle East during the early Cold War period with some relevant
quantitative data.
From the beginning, Syria faced geopolitical challenges, which worked to undermine the
country's political stability. Apart from intra-Arab conflicts and the issue of Zionist
colonization in Palestine, Syria quickly developed into a focal point of the Cold War
between the Western powers and the Soviet Union. This was due to the refusal of the
United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) governments to support Syria's statehood in
economic and military terms. The Western rejection of substantial assistance to Syria,
largely motivated by efforts to back up Israel and fully unrelated to the question of whether
or not Syria was governed by democratic or authoritarian rulers, explains the country’s
shift toward the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s.
Next, UK and US attempts to unseat Syrian governments through covert action (especially
in 1949 and 1956-1957) are examined. It is shown that these events pushed Syria’s leaders
to opt for merger with Nasser's Egypt and military assistance from the Soviet Union in
order to avoid further destabilization. The paper concludes that Western failure to welcome
Syria as an independent actor in the Middle East, which was due to the existence of
previous strategic alignment with competing states in the region, opened the door for the
Soviet Union to emerge as the long-term patron of the Syrian state.... view less
Keywords
Syria; Middle East policy; cold war; USSR; United States of America; France; historical development; Great Britain; pressure-group politics; geopolitics; political stability; post-war period
Classification
International Relations, International Politics, Foreign Affairs, Development Policy
Peace and Conflict Research, International Conflicts, Security Policy
Free Keywords
Cold War; France; geopolitics; Middle East politics; Soviet Union; Syria; United Kingdom; United States of America
Document language
English
Publication Year
2015
Page/Pages
p. 7-56
Journal
Syria Studies, 7 (2015) 4
ISSN
2056-3175
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed