Somewhere between Syria and Norway




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  • 2013-09-17 14:57:30
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Syria: The Reckoning 

If you skimmed the section on Global Politics in any newspaper last week, you would notice that the world of politics was mainly revolving around two topics -the possible intervention in Syria and the Norwegian Parliamentary elections. [caption id="attachment_14784" align="alignleft" width="393" caption="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24114746"][/caption] Convoluted graphs and heated arguments cloud the Syrian civil war, recently re-named the Syrian Crisis, in an information fog. Although Western media and Eastern eyes prey upon the ongoing conflict intermittently, it is more than a challenge to the average political scientist to determine the full identity of the “rebels” and the full guilt of the regime. The sparks of the Arab Spring ignited mass demonstrations in March 2011 with the protesters demanding the resignation of President Bashar Al-Assad whose family had ruled the country ever since 1971. The aggressive reaction by the ruling regime against the peaceful protests provoked an armed response by the population. Two years later, the conflict has escalated into a bloody civil war with numerous dimensions to it: 1. Political – Assad’s government vs. the Free Syrian Army; 2. Ethnic-Religious - Alawites (a Shia group) vs. Sunni rebels; 3. International – U.S. and its allies vs. Russia and its associates. The pretext sounds simple enough: the rebels demand a more democratic and transparent governance, the regime desires to hold onto its stratified position. However, the conflict developed into a complicated web of allegiances, ideals and interests that made religious and ethnic groups turn against one another. The Assad family and its collaborators who happen to hold senior governmental positions belong to the minor Alawite sect (a branch of Shia Islam), which is backed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah (a Shiite organization) and Iran (a predominantly Shiite state). The majority of Syrians, on the other hand, is aligned with Sunni Islam and regards the ruling elite as “heretics”.  Many other groups have been drawn into the conflict, either as armed actors or war victims, including Christians, Armenians, Palestinians, Kurds and Turkmen. [caption id="attachment_14785" align="alignright" width="325" caption="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24096397"][/caption] What further entangles this politico-social web is the passive or active intervention of the Great Powers. The U.S. supports the rebel groups (some of them have been claimed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda) while Russia holds up the current regime. This has led to a stalemate on the U.S. Security Council where the U.S., France and Britain have shown strong willingness to over-top the Syrian government, but Russia and China imposed a veto on any such course of action. Additionally, Israel has expressed its fear of the spreading sectarian violence in neighboring Lebanon and its own Palestinian territories. This has further urged the U.S., its closest ally, to intervene in the explosive region; meanwhile Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also voiced their approval. Recently Russia agreed to a U.S. proposal to demand a comprehensive list of all chemical weapons in possession of the Syrian government. The world awaits to see the imminent development. Attempts at portraying one side as “the villains” and the other as the “the good guys” are bound to fail; policy-makers and people worldwide are coming to the realization that the government army is composed of common people with common concerns about their families, and that the Free Syrian Army may not be 100% Syrian and independent of political influences. And ultimately, there is a third section that is beginning to emerge in the crossfire between the combating parties – the civilian population. Millions of refugees are flocking the neighboring countries on a daily basis, some even reaching Turkey and Algeria – sometimes without shelter or sustenance. Over 100,000 people have been killed so far, according to UN estimates, and at this point the war seems to be never-ending. Beyond power politics and policies, though, there is the Syrian people that may be left not only without homes, but without a country.

Norway's Iron Lady

[caption id="attachment_14783" align="alignleft" width="332" caption="AFP/Getty Images http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324549004579066780763830364.html"][/caption] Syrian monopoly on political focus was shaken last week by the Norwegian Parliamentary elections. As the battle between Left and Right rages on globally, Norway’s very own “Iron Lady” or “Iron Erna” Solberg, leader of the Conservative Party, won a decisive victory. Solberg will become the second female PM in the history of Norway and the first center-right oriented one since 1990. Although Norway has escaped the European economic crisis unscathed, the Conservative Party has decided to introduce further measures by diversifying the economy away from the predominance of the oil industry and by reducing taxes (some of the highest in the world) in order to encourage the private sector. Ms. Solberg is expected to form a coalition government with the Progress Party (of which Anders Breivik was a member and which will enter Parliament for the first time), and either the Christian Democrats or the Liberals, both of whom are not very keen on the idea.  While Europe and USA are struggling to revive their economies, the main issue for the new Norwegian  PM is how to allocate the enormous amounts of money Norway gets from its oil supplies. Written by Yoana Savova