Syria: Stumbling Into Stalemate

Author(s): Alexander Bolfrass
Book Title: Military Coercion and US Foreign Policy: The Use of Force Short of War
Publisher(s): Routledge
Publication Year: 2020

This chapter by Alex Bolfrass contrasts the responses of the Obama and Trump administrations to Syria’s use of chemical weapons. Both administrations pursued the same stated aim: to cause the Assad regime to refrain from using chemical munitions in fighting its civil war without the US becoming a combatant. Neither administration achieved this aim in full. Nonetheless, the combined effect of their approaches was a creditable reduction in the chemical munitions available to the Syrian government’s forces and a potentially lasting reduction of their use.

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