Geography 1982

Position Paper #1
Instructor: Eric Reiff

Syrias Civil War: A World Regional Puzzle

The question(s)

How will peace come to Syria and what should be done right now about the welfare
of its residents and refugees? The first position paper focuses on an important and
dynamic contemporary world regional issue: the ongoing conflict in the area still
nominally called Syria and what it means for countries in the region, for Europe, and
for Russian and US interests in the region. Just as important, this paper requires that
you think about the Syrian people trying escape the violence in the region.

The puzzle

What began as another Arab Spring uprising against an autocratic ruler has
mushroomed into a brutal proxy war that has drawn in regional and world powers.
As part of the Arab Spring pro-democracy protests erupted in March of 2011 in
Syria. Seeing what had happened in Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt the government took
a hardline with the protestersit shot them. Rather than end, protests spread and
protesters escalated their demands to include that al-Assad resign. He responded
with more violence and sometimes coordinated and sometimes disparate rebel
groups formed to oust him from power. Alignment with or against the government
has largely fallen along sectarian lines with the Sunni majority pitched against alAssads minority Shia Alawite sect. Making the conflict even more dynamic was the
rise of the Islamic State which moved in from Iraq with its own regional agenda. Add
to this Russian and Iranian support for al-Assad and you have a truly world regional
puzzle. Many human rights abuses and war crimes have occurred since the
beginning of the conflict leaving 250,000 Syrians dead as of August 2015 and
generating a staggering humanitarian crisis that has challenged the worlds
commitment to human rights. More than 4.5 million people have fled Syria with
about 10% going to Europe creating political divisions in Europe. In addition, 6.5
million people are internally displaced inside Syria, a country of just under 23 million
in 2013. No side has been able, nor appears will be able in the near term to
decisively win Syrias civil war and the civil war constantly threatens to spill over
into other countries in the region such as Turkey. There is no end to the conflict in
sight.

The assignment

You will be assigned one of five positions (see below) to support and defend. Even if
you do not necessarily agree with the position that you are assigned, you must
adopt this position and try to understand the perspective of the actor that you
represent. This is a critical thinking experiment that forces you to think outside the
box and consider alternative perspectives on important issues. You will do some
basic research on your issue/topic/stance and then write a minimum 3 page position
paper to be turned in on D2L. You will be assessed via the general grading rubric
available to you on D2L and via your ability to answer the following questions.
The core question that you will be writing about is: What should be done
about the separatist movements in Ukraine?
You will answer and defend this core question by researching and answering the
following questions and/or statements:
1. What are the historical, cultural, economic, and political underpinnings
of Syrias civil war?
2. State your positions interest in and general perspective on Syrias civil war.
3. From your position, how will peace be achieved? Should there be continued or
expanded armed intervention? Armed peace keepers? Who should provide
the money and troops?
4. Who should be responsible for Syrian refugees? Neighboring countries?
Wealthy countries like the US and the countries in the EU? Maybe your
position believes the refugees should be sent back to Syria to sort things out
for themselves?

What you need to do

To explore the core question and subsequent questions, you will use the concepts
and ideas brought up in lecture and in your textbook since the beginning of the
course. This is an opportunity to apply conceptual tools you learned in the first part
of the course to a real-life puzzle. You should review and start your research for this
paper by visiting reputable online news sources and information in your textbook
about this world region. You should also draw from any pertinent course concepts
such as (but not limited to): nationalism, nation-states, and failed states;
development; regionalization; globalization; interdependence; scale; and place. You

will also want to explore additional material from books, scholarly journals,
newspapers, Internet sources, or magazine articles for more contextual data.
The paper will need to be a minimum of 3 pages, 12pt font, doublespaced.
The paper should reference at least 5 sources using intext citations.
At least one cited source must be academic. Look up what this
means if you dont know.
Your sources will need to be documented using a widely accepted
formatting system both intext and in a works cited/ reference page
(this is in addition to the minimum 3 pages of writing). List your
citation style next to the section headeri.e. Works Cited (APA).
Look at the rubric on D2L to see how you will be graded.

The positions
You will be responsible for developing an argument (you need a thesis that states a
position!!) to advance your assigned positions interests. Your arguments should
reference some of the key concepts that we've discussed in the course to date as
they pertain to the topic at hand. Your paper should also address any major
arguments that other positions might make against your position.
Positions:
1. International Red Cross or Human Rights Watch
2. Syrian Government and/or Russian Government
3. US government
4. Turkish government
5. The European Union or Greek or German governments
As you prepare your paper consider the following issues though you do not have to
address them all in your paper:
1) Who controls which parts of Syria?
2) What are the goals of the Islamic State in Syria and bordering countries?
3) Who are the rebel groups, what do they want, and who supports them?
4) What is the religious and ethnic make-up of Syria and how do these
groups connect to other countries in the region?
5) What are Russia and Irans interests in Syria, who do they support, and
what have they done in Syria since the start of the conflict?
6) Can you see a path to a negotiated peace and what would it look like?
7) Consider the human rights abuses that have already occurredi.e. use of
chemical weapons, torture, intentional and negligent bombings of
hospitals, preventing of food and medical supplies getting to civilian
populations?
8) Can President Bashar al-Assad be a part of any negotiated peace or must
he go before anything resembling peace can be achieved? Who will make
him go? Who/what will replace him?
9) What is the Security Council endorsed road map for peace? Will it succeed
where other negotiations have failed?
10)
What is the relationship between racism, sectarianism, Islamic
terrorism, and acceptance of Syrian refugees in other counties?

Useful online sources for starting your research:

The Economist Magazine: www.economist.com
The New York Times: www.nytimes.com
The British Broadcasting Corporation: www.bbc.com
The Guardian Newspaper: www.guardian.co.uk.co
Al Jazeera News: www.aljazeera.com
http://www.europeanforum.net/country/syrian_arab_republic
http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/syrian-government/
http://www.rescue.org/where/greece
https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/syria
http://syriatimes.sy/index.php/about-us
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/09/daily-chart-18
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc12171.doc.htm
Wikipedia searches about the topic, but DO NOT EVER CITE WIKIPEDIA!!!!
Also, use Google Scholar to search for academic articles. It can be accessed
through the University Libraries website using Chinook.