The Russian Intervention in Syria

Abstract

The Syrian civil war, from its onset, was converted into a proxy war. The third-parties’ intervention in favor or against the Assad administration and the UN’s peace efforts failed to end the war. The unstoppable spread of the Islamic State (IS) and the Syrian loss of its own territories led Russia to upgrade its military presence in favor of the Syrian government, from indirect involvement to a direct military intervention in 2015, the first one outside the borders of the former Soviet Union. Russia’s offensive operation intended to challenge the US’s unipolarity and to prevent the IS’s spread in the Russian territory. For Russia, Syria was the foothold to become an indispensable actor in the Middle East and to expand into new markets in the region. Russia accomplished a military operation in favor of its ally by restoring sovereignty in a large part of Syria and by eliminating IS. Thus, it expanded its sphere of influence in the Middle East and gained a more substantial presence in the international community. The Russian intervention in Syria was a critical factor for the shift from unipolarity to multipolarity in the Middle East and in the international balance of power.