No red lines: the question of western military intervention

Abstract

This chapter analyses the question of western intervention and why no state deployed its military to bring about regime change in Syria. It explores why the Syria conflict attracted so little direct military intervention in its early, formative years, especially by the US. The ‘nonstrike’ of late summer 2013 was something of a watershed in the Syrian civil war. Until that point, some form of military intervention led by the US, modelled on the actions in Libya in 2011, seemed a realistic prospect to many of the key actors and impacted their behaviour. But afterwards, most recognised that US military action against Assad was unlikely. While Obama did eventually authorise direct military action in Syria in September 2014, it was against ISIS, not Assad.