Abstract
The inability of the Syrian government to internally manage the popular uprising in the country have increased international pressure on Syria as well as deepen international efforts to resolve the crisis that has developed into a full scale civil war. It was the need to end the violent conflict in Syria that informed the appointment of Kofi Annan as the U.N-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria on February 23, 2012. This study investigates the U.S and Russian governments’ involvement in the Syrian crisis and the UN Kofi Annan peace process. The two persons’ Zero-sum model of the game theory is used as our framework of analysis. Our findings showed that the divergence on financial and military support by the U.S and Russian governments to the rival parties in the Syrian conflict contradicted the mandate of the U.N Security Council that sanctioned the Annan plan and compromised the ceasefire agreement contained in the plan which resulted in the escalation of violent conflict in Syria during the period the peace deal was supposed to be in effect. The implication of the study is that the success of any U.N brokered peace deal is highly dependent on the ability of its key members to have a consensus, hence, there is need to galvanize a comprehensive international consensus on how to tackle the Syrian crisis that would accommodate all crucial international actors. We recommended that there is need for a negotiated solution that will involve a compromise agreement by the conflicting parties on the basis of mutual consent since the zero-sum nature of the Syrian conflict in which both regime and its opponents seek total victory make political settlement elusive. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p1154
Highlights
Since taking office in 2000, President Bashir al-Assad has offered and retracted the prospect of limited political reform in Syria despite the serious socio-economic and political challenges that the nation of Syria face
Faced with a vicious response by government forces, the initially nonviolent uprising has progressively changed into an armed rebellion and civil war between government forces loyal to President Assad and opposition forces led by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a group made up of largely soldiers who defected from the Syrian army (Dunne, 2012)
This work examined the link between the U.S and Russian governments’ involvement in the Syrian crisis and the U.N’s Kofi Annan peace process and contended that the divergence on financial and military support by the US and Russian governments heighten violent conflict in Syria during the Annan peace process, and as such, undermined the compliance of both the government forces in Syria and opposition rebel groups to the ceasefire agreement contained in the Annan peace deal
Summary
Since taking office in 2000, President Bashir al-Assad has offered and retracted the prospect of limited political reform in Syria despite the serious socio-economic and political challenges that the nation of Syria face. The United Nations’ Security Council approval of the appointment of Kofi Annan as the U.N-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria signaled international commitment to resolve the Syrian crisis in a non-partisan manner, ruling out the possibility of any form of direct military intervention in support of any of the conflicting parties by the U.N. The aim of the peace deal brokered by Kofi Annan was to establish a long-term ceasefire that would support the opening of a national dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition groups on Syria’s political future (Sharp and Blanchard, 2012B). The involvement of the U.S and Russian governments in the Syrian crisis have been on partisan basis with both nations reported to have provided various forms of financial and military assistance to the opposing actors in the conflict These assistances were aimed at giving a comparative advantage to the group they align with in the conflict over the other. This study attempted an investigation of the effect of the divergence in the nature of the United States and Russian governments’ involvement in the Syrian crisis on the Kofi Annan peace process
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