Abstract

GHOTME, RAFAT  and  RIPOLL, ALEJANDRA. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR: THE UNITED STATES AND RUSSIA IN THE STRUGGLE FOR INTERNATIONAL POWER. rev.relac.int.estrateg.segur. [online]. 2014, vol.9, n.2, pp.49-76. ISSN 1909-3063.

The aim of this article is to demonstrate that the actions of the great powers in the Syrian civil war are motivated by balance of power politics. Though it is accepted that they get involved in the civil war to protect or expand their material interests, those states do so in the context of a broader systemic logic. The United States of America, which continues being an hegemonic power, has been facing a decline in its power capabilities, leading it to accept a new status quo -the Russian-American agreement- in which it has to admit its own idea of regional order sharing that function with Russia and to a lesser extent with China and Iran. With the change in the distribution of power that is brewing up in the Middle East and the international system, those states were compelled to accept that the balance policy was the best alternative.

Keywords : Syria; civil war; United States; Russia; China; balance of power; hegemony.

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