Publication
17 Sep 2015
This backgrounder provides several reasons why Russia has deployed troops to Syria. It surmises that Moscow is seeking ways to 1) prop up the Assad regime; 2) thwart the US and Turkey from establishing a possible 'ISIS-free' buffer zone; and 3) embarrass the US by positioning Russia as the leader of a new international anti-ISIS coalition. The backgrounder's authors also argue that the deployment will 1) alter the nature of international negotiations over Syria; 2) compromise and weaken the cohesion of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition; 3) strengthen the Assad regime; and 4) initiate direct Russo-Iranian military operations. In light of these developments, the authors finally urge the US and its partners to reassess their approach to the Syrian conflict in fundamental ways.
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English (PDF, 10 pages, 1.0 MB) |
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Author | Hugo Spaulding, Christopher Kozak, Christopher Harmer, Daniel Urchick, Jessica Lewis McFate, Jennifer Cafarella, Harleen Gambhir, Kimberly Kagan |
Series | ISW Backgrounders and Reports |
Publisher | Institute for the Study of War (ISW) |
Copyright | © 2015 Institute for the Study of War |