Syria, USA and Russia: How the Concept of the Responsibility to Protect Has Unfolded In the Syrian Conflict

Abstract

The research discusses the Syrian conflict which has been ongoing since early 2011 with no end in sight and the role of countries in the war with the concept of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as its running theme. This study’s major objective was to investigate the systematic actions and inactions of particularly the USA and Russia that has contributed to the Syrian crisis and also critically analyse the effect of the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) approach on the current state of the Syrian conflict. It also sought to assess the effectiveness of the actions taken by the Government of Syria in fulfilling its primary responsibility to protect its citizenry. The study used exploratory research approach where data used were secondary materials and this approach served as a tool to help the researcher understand the issues more thoroughly. Through the research, it was revealed that the USA and Russia have remained rival power houses even in the Syrian war. For instance, Russia vehemently opposed any form of foreign military intervention in the Syrian conflict where they claimed that any intervention by the US could result in the repeat of the 2011 operation against Gadhafi in Libya where a supposed humanitarian intervention act ended in a regime change. It is noted that both Russia and China have some respective influence on Syria politically and economically. With several sanctions on Syria, the USA together with the EU wanted a ceasefire after there were reports of the use of chemical weapons by Syria. The actions of the USA centred on brokering peace through unifying the opposition by taking actions such as the deployment of Patriotic Missile Batteries to the U.S. Military personnel to support the defence of border states such as Turkey and Jordan. The study further revealed that there have not been any franticly efforts by the Assad regime to effectively protect its citizenry thus neglecting the first pillar of the R2P which charges the state, as its primary responsibility to protect its citizenry. It has been established that the UNSC failed to effectively broker peace and negotiate an end to the conflict. This is basically due to lack of a unified consensus among member states especially on the UNSC. The study recommends among other things that the UNSC must put pressure on the Assad regime and its allies like Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah mercenaries to stop equipping it with arms and military supplies after its confirmed involvement in crimes against humanity and war crimes. Among the key recommendations made was for the UN to provide safe zones for the Syrian refugees and those internally displaced, for the UNSC to press upon the “friends” of the Assad regime to cease all support financially and militarily and for the UNSC to step up in ensuring peace was brokered in Syria to help end the atrocities being committed.