WHY IT IS TOO DIFFICULT TO DOWN ASSAD?: THE MURPHY LAWS OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Year 2019, , 322 - 330, 28.02.2019

Yiğit Anıl Güzelipek

https://doi.org/10.30520/tjsosci.522048

Abstract

In the modern history, Arab Spring was one of the most important
merciless challenge to military dictatorships all around the Middle East. All
the dictators lost their rotten thrones sooner or later except Bashar el-Assad.
There are many political or strategic explanations regarding how Assad still
partly protects his power and still represents Syria in the position of
presidency. On the other hand, sometimes “perfectly” designed international
politics fall behind while interpreting the “destined” side of international
relations. In other words, sometimes “expect the unexpected” which is the
famous formula of Murphy Laws determine the critical developments in international
relations. This paper aims to investigate the Assad’s survival based on the
Murphy Laws which is considered as one of the natural extension of post-positivist
theory in international relations. In order to support the arguments of this
paper, other historical developments are also adapted to the study.

Keywords

Arab Spring, Assad, Post-Positivism, Murphy Laws, International Relations

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