Browsing by Subject "Syria"

This thesis studies the European Union’s approach to the reconstruction of Syria. It focuses on the years 2016-2019, when the discussion on the reconstruction has been the most prominent. The official European Union stance on the reconstruction is that the EU will participate in the reconstruction of Syria only when a credible and meaningful political process, based on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254 and the Geneva Communique, and negotiated by the Syrian parties, is firmly underway. The thesis analyses this stance in-depth defines the key elements of the approach and explores dilemmas that arise from the clash between the approach and conflict context. Post-conflict reconstruction is linked to the post-conflict peacebuilding framework. It can encompass political, social and economic aspects of rebuilding states after wars. When external, mainly western and international, actors participate in reconstruction, they have often promoted liberal peace, including democracy, market economy and modern state institutions. This has led to so called statebuilding approach, which focuses on strengthening state institutions and promoting good governance. The EU’s approach is analysed in this framework, with a focus on normative power. The EU has been described asa normative power, which has been constructed on a normative basis and promotes normative principles in its international relations. To analyse the reconstruction approach, this thesis uses publicly available documents from relevant EU bodies as a source for the analysis. Main focus is with the European External Action Service documents, with inputs from relevant documents from other bodies. The source materials are analysed and categorised using Qualitative Content Analysis method. The key findings of the research are that the EU’s approach is based on strong economic power leverage and promotion of normative principles with a focus on reforming the political system and facilitating reconciliation. The reconstruction assistance is used as a leverage to push Syrian parties and their allies to the peace negotiations in Geneva under the UN auspices. The EU legitimates its role through emphasising its neutral longer-term approach that is based on humanitarian principles and support for Syrian voices and ownership. It also externalises its normative identity as a peace project as the source of credibility in promoting peace. The approach has had little effect on the Assad government, which has strengthened its grip on state structures. This poses a dilemma to the EU and other international actors: how to fulfil humanitarian objectives without legitimating the government? The concept of reconstruction with its flexibility has shown that many activities can and are done under other terms such as early recovery and stabilisation. However, operating like this can undermine the official political stance.