Date of Award

6-2017

Document Type

Union College Only

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

History

First Advisor

Brian Peterson

Language

English

Keywords

Arab Spring

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the conflict in Syria that arose during the Arab Spring by explaining many of its factors with past historical events. Ethnic and religious tensions strained during the mandate system to Cold War armament are contributing factors to Syria’s situation in 2017. As the conflict in Syria drew more international attention, many authors published books about the conflict and Syrian history, which were utilized for this paper. Primary sources used include online news articles about the conflict and interviews with U.S. diplomatic officers conducted by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST). After compiling much research, it became clear that the conflict was very complex and overly simplified by media outlets and popular online web sources such as “Wikipedia”. The thesis draws upon deep historical facts and in depth research about the conflict itself to identify that the oversimplification of facts results in skewing the reality on the ground. The argument is that simple facts do not do justice to explain the conflict in Syria. With complex alliances, complex support networks, and many different battlefield objectives, Syria’s conflict must be put into the proper perspective. Simple facts do not exist in such a complicated conflict and to understand the perspective one should do his best to frame the conflict as if he is on the ground in Syria.

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