How to Support the Opposition in Syria: New Models for Understanding Syria

Abstract

Americans' understanding of the current civil war in Syria is firmly rooted in their recent military history: the U.S. experience in Iraq and Afghanistan over the course of the past decade. These conflicts have made U.S. policy makers painfully aware of the costs of the kind of intervention required by modern counterinsurgency doctrine, and of the limits of U.S. ability to create enduring political change in foreign lands. However, another slightly older case exists that may be more relevant to the civil war currently raging in Syria. U.S. intervention during the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was successful in achieving its proximate goal(Soviet withdrawal), though the consequences of that conflict have been grave and far-reaching.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2014
Accession Number
AD1042469

Entities

People

  • Susanna Blume

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil War
  • Command And Control
  • Foreign Policy
  • Government (Foreign)
  • Governments
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • Middle East
  • Military Assistance
  • National Security
  • Societies
  • Surface To Air Missiles
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • Ussr
  • War
  • Weapons

Fields of Study

  • History
  • Sociology

Readers

  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Strategic Security Studies