Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T23:06:52.692Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - The Ukrainian and Syrian Conflicts: Civil Wars or Geopolitical Shatterbelts?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2023

Iulian Chifu
Affiliation:
National Defence University, Bucharest
Greg Simons
Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Get access

Summary

The manner in which armed conflicts are catagorised is an important feature of the politics of warfare. There are different implications and aspects of symbolism whether a conflict is categorised as being a civil war or a geopolitical shatterbelt. This is of relevance and significance for foreign sponsors and patrons of the conflict as terminology is useful in determining how different audiences perceive and react to the conflict in question. This chapter explores the rhetorical categorisation of the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine in terms of the narratives and storytelling used to engineer opinions, perceptions and responses to these conflicts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Rethinking Warfare in the 21st Century
The Influence and Effects of the Politics, Information and Communication Mix
, pp. 273 - 307
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aksenyonok, A. (2019), The Syrian Crisis: A Thorny Path from War to Peace, Valdai Papers #104, Moscow: Valdai Club.Google Scholar
Alberts, D. S., Garstka, J. J., Hayes, R. E. & Signori, D. A. (2001), Understanding Information Age Warfare, Washington DC: CCRP Publication Series.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansari, A. & Tabrizi, A. B. (2016), I. The View from Tehran in Tabrizi, A. B. & Pantucci, R. (Eds.), Understanding Iran’s Role in the Syrian Conflict, Occasional Paper, London: Royal United Services Institute, pp. 39.Google Scholar
Auer, S. (2015), Carl Schmitt in the Kremlin: The Ukraine Crisis and the Return of Geopolitics, International Affairs, 91(5), pp. 953968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakir, V., Herring, E., Miller, D. & Robinson, P. (2018), Organised Persuasive Communication: A New Conceptual Framework for Research on Public Relations, Propaganda and Promotional Culture, Critical Sociology, 45(3), 2019, pp. 311328.Google Scholar
Bhardwaj, M. (2012), Development of Conflict in Arab Spring Libya and Syria: From Revolution to Civil War, The Washington University International Review, 1(1), pp. 7696.Google Scholar
Blanchard, C. M., Humud, C. E. & Nikitin, M.-B. D. (17 September 2014), Armed Conflict in Syria: Overview and U.S. Response, Congressional Research Service, RL33487.Google Scholar
Bliesemann de Guevara, B. & Kostic, R. (2017), Knowledge Production In/About Conflict and Intervention: Finding ‘Facts’, Telling ‘Truth’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 11(1), pp. 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, K. (1997), Total Defence: What Is Being Defended and What Are the Threats?, OR Insight, 10(1), pp. 27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brzezinski, Z. (1997), The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bucala, P. (February 2017), Iran’s New Way of War in Syria, A Report by the Critical Threats Project of the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War.Google Scholar
Bunce, V. & Hozic, A. (2016), Diffusion-Proofing and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratisation, 24(4), pp. 435455.Google Scholar
Cafarella, J., Kagan, K. & Kagan, F. W. (2017), U.S. Grand Strategy: Destroying ISIS and Al Qaeda, Report Four: America’s Way Ahead in Syria, Washington DC: Institute for the Study of War.Google Scholar
Carpenter, T. G. (2013), Tangled Web: The Syrian Civil War and Its Implications, Mediterranean Quarterly, 24(1), Winter, pp. 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, S. & McCormack, D. P. (2006), Film, Geopolitics and the Affective Logics of Intervention, Political Geography, 25(2), pp. 228245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Celso, A. N. (2018), Superpower Hybrid Warfare in Syria, MCU Journal, 9(2), Fall, pp. 92116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chalmers, M. (November 2015), UK Air Strikes in Syria: Time for a Decision?, Briefing Paper, London: Royal United Services Institute.Google Scholar
Codevilla, A. M. (1989), Political Warfare in Lord, C. & Barnett, F. R. (Eds.), Political Warfare and Psychological Operations: Rethinking the US Approach, Washington DC: National Defence University Press Publications.Google Scholar
Cohen, S. B. (2003), Geopolitical Realities and the United States Foreign Policy, Political Geography, 22(1), pp. 133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S. B.(1992), Middle East Geopolitical Transformation: The Disappearance of a Shatter Belt, Journal of Geography, 91(1), pp. 210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S. B.(1973), Geography and Politics in a World Divided, 2nd Edition, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, Unofficial Translation (18 February 2013), The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (official site), www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/official_documents/-/asset_publisher/CptICkB6BZ29/content/id/122186.Google Scholar
Cunnigham, D. E. (2010), Blocking Resolution: How External States Can Prolong Civil Wars, Journal of Peace Research, 47(2), pp. 115127.Google Scholar
Dias, V. A. & Freire, M. R. (2019), Russia and the Arab Spring: A Counter-Revolutionary Power in the MENA Region in Cakmak, C. & Özcelik, A. O. (Eds.), The World Community and the Arab Spring, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 161183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobbins, J., Cohen, R. S., Chandler, N., Frederick, B., Geist, E., DeLuca, P., Morgan, F. E., Shatz, H. J. & Williams, B. (2019), Overextending and Unbalancing Russia: Assessing the Impact of Cost-Imposing Options, Santa Monica: RAND Corporation. www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html.Google Scholar
Driscoll, J. (February 2019), Ukraine’s Civil War: Would Accepting This Terminology Help Resolve the Conflict? PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 572.Google Scholar
Edelman, E. & Wald, C. (2017), Countering Iranian Expansion in Syria, Washington DC: JINSA Gemunder Centre Iran Task Force.Google Scholar
Ettinger, A. (2017), The Patterns and Implications of American Military Interventions in the Post-September 11 Era, Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 23(3), pp. 205217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flint, C. (2017), Introduction to Geopolitics, 3rd Edition, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Galariotis, I. & Ifantis, K. (Eds.) (2017), The Syrian Imbroglio: International and Regional Strategies, Florence: European University Institute.Google Scholar
Galbreath, D. J. & Malyarenko, T. (2020), Evolving Dynamics of Societal Security and the Potential for Conflict in Eastern Ukraine, Europe-Asia Studies, DOI 10.1080/09668136.2019.1705964.Google Scholar
Gleditsch, K. S. (2007), Transnational Dimensions of Civil War, Journal of Peace Research, 44(3), pp. 293309.Google Scholar
House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (14 September 2016), Libya: Examination of Intervention and Collapse of the UK’s Future Policy Options, Third Report of Session 2016–17, HC 119.Google Scholar
Hughes, G. A. (2014), Syria and the Perils of Proxy Warfare, Small Wars & Insurgencies, 25(3), pp. 522538.Google Scholar
Jalilov, M. & Kelly, P. (2014), The Ukrainian Shatterbelt: A New Cold War? I Report dell’ IsAG.Google Scholar
Jones, B. D. & Stedman, S. J. (2017), Civil Wars & the Post-Cold War International Order, Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 146(4), Fall, pp. 3344.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, S. N. (2001), ‘New’ and ‘Old’ Civil Wars: A Valid Distinction?, World Politics, 54(1), pp. 99118.Google Scholar
Kassim, Y. R. (2014), The Geopolitics of Intervention: Asia and the Responsibility to Protect, New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Kelly, P. L. (1986), Escalation of Regional Conflict: Testing the Shatterbelt Conflict, Political Geography Quarterly, 5(2), pp. 161180.Google Scholar
Klieman, A. (2015), Pushing Back: The Balance and Balancing of Power in Klieman, A. (Ed.), Great Powers and Geopolitics: International Affairs in a Rebalancing World, New York: Springer, pp. 1129.Google Scholar
Korybko, A. (2015), Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach to Regime Change, Moscow: Russian University of Friendship Peoples.Google Scholar
Kostic, R. (2017), Shadow Peacebuilders and Diplomatic Counterinsurgencies: Informal Networks, Knowledge Production and the Art of Policy Shaping, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 11(1), pp. 120139.Google Scholar
Kozhanov, N. (2016), Russia and the Syrian Conflict: Moscow’s Domestic, Regional and Strategic Interests, Hamburg: Gerlach Press.Google Scholar
Kudelia, S. (2018), When Numbers Are not Enough: The Strategic Use of Violence in Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution, Comparative Politics, 50(4), pp. 501521.Google Scholar
Lacina, B. (2006), Explaining the Severity of Civil Wars, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 50(2), pp. 276289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lain, S. & Sutyagin, I. (2016), ‘III. The View from Moscow’ in Tabrizi, A. B. & Pantucci, R. (Eds.), Understanding Iran’s Role in the Syrian Conflict, Occasional Paper, London: Royal United Services Institute, pp. 1724.Google Scholar
Laruelle, M. (2019), Introduction to the Special Issue: The Donbass Conflict, Nationalities Papers, 47(5), pp. 715718.Google Scholar
Malantowicz, A. (2013), Civil War in Syria and the New Wars Debate, Amsterdam Law Forum, 5(3), Summer, pp. 5260.Google Scholar
Malyarenko, T. & Wolff, S. (2018), The Logic of Competitive Influence-Seeking: Russia, Ukraine, and the Conflict in Donbas, Post-Soviet Affairs, DOI 10.1080/1060586X.2018.1425083.Google Scholar
Matsuzato, K. (2017), The Donbass War: Outbreak and Deadlock, Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 25(2), pp. 175200.Google Scholar
Ministry of Defence (December 2010), Understanding, No. 4 (JPD04), Shrivenham: Joint Doctrine PublicationGoogle Scholar
Morris, J. (2013), Libya and Syria: R2P and the Spectre of the Swinging Pendulum, International Affairs, 89(5), pp. 12651283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullerson, R. (2014), Ukraine: Victim of Geopolitics, Chinese Journal of International Law, 13(1), pp. 133–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nikitina, Y. (2014), The ‘Colour Revolutions’ and ‘Arab Spring’ in Official Russian Discourse, Connections, 14(1), Winter, pp. 87104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paraschos, P. E. (March/April 2017), Geopolitical Risk in the Middle East and North Africa: Shatter Belts & Great Power Rivalry, Japan Spotlight, pp. 1720 (accessible from www.jef.or.jp/journal/pdf/212th_Cover_03.pdf).Google Scholar
Paul, C., Clarke, C. P., Schwille, M., Hlávka, J. P., Brown, M. A., Davenport, S. S., PorcheIII, I. R. and Harding, J. (2018), Lessons from Others for Future U.S. Army Operations in and through the Information Environment, Santa Monica: RAND Corporation.Google Scholar
Paul, C. (2017), Assessing and Evaluating Department of Defence Efforts to Inform, Influence and Persuade (Worked Example), Santa Monica: RAND Corporation.Google Scholar
Payne, K. (2005), The Media As an Instrument of War, Parameters, Spring, pp. 81–93.Google Scholar
Perra, A. (2016), From the Arab Spring to the Damascus Winter: The United States, Russia, and the New Cold War, Contemporary Review of the Middle East, 3(4), pp. 363386.Google Scholar
Póti, L. (July 2018), Russian Policies towards the MENA Region, Middle East and North Africa Regional Architecture, Working Papers, No 9Google Scholar
Regan, P. M. & Aydin, A. (2006), Diplomacy and Other Forms of Intervention in Civil Wars, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 50(5), pp. 736756.Google Scholar
Reynal-Querol, M. (2002), Ethnicity, Political Systems, and Civil Wars, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 46(1), pp. 2954.Google Scholar
Risse-Kappen, T. (1995), Democratic Peace – Warlike Democracies? A Social Constructivist Interpretation of the Liberal Argument, European Journal of International Relations, 1(4), pp. 491517.Google Scholar
Robinson, L., Helmus, T. C., Cohen, R. S., Nader, A., Radin, A., Magnuson, M. & Migacheva, K. (2018), Modern Political Warfare: Current Practices and Possible Responses, Santa Monica: RAND.Google Scholar
RUSI (25 July 2012), A Collison Course for Intervention, Syria Crisis Briefing, London: Royal United Services InstituteGoogle Scholar
Sakwa, R. (2016), Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands, London: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Sambanis, N. (2004), What Is Civil War? Conceptual and Empirical Complexities of an Operational Definition, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 48(6), pp. 814858.Google Scholar
Simons, G. (2022a), Ukraine and the ‘Imminent’ Russian Invasion: New Mass Media as a Means of Propaganda and Manipulation, Bulletin of Moscow Region State University, (2). (In Russian.) https://doi.org/10.18384/2224-0209-2022-2-382.Google Scholar
Simons, G. (2022b), ‘Inevitable’ and ‘Imminent’ Invasions: The Logic Behind Western Media War Stories, Journal of International Analytics, 13(2), pp. 4358. (In Russian.) https://doi.org/10.46272/2587-8476-2022-13-2-43-58.Google Scholar
Smith, N. R. (5 April 2017), What the West Can Learn from Rationalising Russia’s Action in Ukraine, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Summer, pp. 354–368.Google Scholar
Thakur, R. (2013), R2P After Libya and Syria: Engaging Emerging Powers, The Washington Quarterly, 36(2), pp. 6176.Google Scholar
US National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) (1984), Number 130, UN International Information Policy (March 6, 1984).Google Scholar
Vincent, R. C. (2006), Global Communication, and Propaganda in Kamalipour, Y. R. (Ed.), Transnational Media and Global Communication, 2nd Edition, Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Co, Chapter 11, pp. 232270.Google Scholar
Waldman, T. (2018), Vicarious Warfare: The Counterproductive Consequences of Modern American Military Practice, Contemporary Security Policy, 39(2), pp. 181205.Google Scholar
Woodberry, R. D. (2012), The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy, American Political Science Review, 106(2), pp. 244274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yakushik, V. (2016), Competing Interpretations of the Socio-Political Crisis in Ukraine in 2013–2016, Argumentum, 8(3), pp. 105121.Google Scholar
Zollmann, F. (2017), Bringing Propaganda Back into News Media Studies, Critical Sociology, DOI: 10.1177/0896920517731134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zulfqar, S. (2018), Competing Interests of Major Powers in the Middle East: The Case Study of Syria and Its Implications for Regional Stability, Perceptions, XXIII(1), pp. 212148.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×