The Economics of Soviet Policy towards Syria

Abstract

Although the military dimension has figured prominently in Soviet-Syrian relations from their very inception, it is only during the Asad era that it has come to predominate so overwhelmingly all other aspects of the bilateral relationship; until then, the military dimension was always balanced by corresponding activity in the economic sphere, as evidenced, for example, by the signing of the 1957 large-scale economic agreement in the wake of the 1955 and 1956 arms deals. Moreover, under the left-wing regime of 1966–70, the centre of gravity in Soviet-Syrian relations lay in the economic, rather than the military sphere.