AR

Russian Intervention: Geostrategy is Paramount

Volume 3|Issue 17| Nov 2015 |Research Papers and Policy Reports
DOI: Russian Intervention Geostrategy The Syrian people Values and Principles

Abstract

Current Russian policy is based on a nationalism that rests on state capitalism, and that speaks to nationalist sentiment built on the rejection of Western exploitation. This patriotic nationalist position becomes evident through the lack of any ideologically derived principles driving Russia’s position: state interests including national security are what drive current policy. The drivers for this new Russian policy mean that Russia can simultaneously suppress a separatist movement by armed force in one region and champion another separatist movement with armed force in another. In this sense, the Russian Federation has no fixed positions but only fixed interests, and even its interests can change. In Syria, critics suggest that the proximate aim of Russia’s policy is to defend the Assad regime, Moscow’s ally, from collapse. Saving the regime is not, however, an end in itself. Rather, it is a means of self-assertion and another step toward the goal of becoming a global superpower, this time in the Middle East. If the Syrian regime believes its rescue is the exclusive objective of Russia’s intervention, it is wrong. The exertion of Russian influence will at most provide a temporary respite. The mere fact of Russia’s military presence in Syria means that the regime is no longer master of its own destiny and no longer even a player on the international stage, since Russia is now its proxy at any international negotiations. 

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Azmi Bishara
Azmi Bishara

Prominent Arab intellectual, political philosopher, and researcher with numerous books and academic publications on political thought, social theory and philosophy. As a scholar, his magnum opus is his two-part work Religion and Secularism in Historical Context. Part I, Religion and Religiosity was published in 2013, followed in 2015 by the two-volume Part II, Secularity and Secularization: The Intellectual Trajectory and Secularity and Theories of Secularization. His latest books are The Question of the State: Philosophy, Theory, and Context (2023) with a second volume titled The Arab State: Beginnings and Evolution (2024); and Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice (2024), originally released in English in 2022 by Hurst Publishers in London, published concurrently with The Flood: The War on Palestine in Gaza (2024). Bishara’s publications in Arabic, some of which have become key references within their respective field, include Civil Society: A Critical Study (1996); From the Jewishness of the State to Sharon (2004); On The Arab Question: An Introduction to an Arab Democratic Manifesto (2007); To Be an Arab in Our Times (2009); On Revolution and Susceptibility to Revolution (2012); Religion and Secularism in Historical Context (in 3 vols., 2013, 2015); The Army and Political Power in the Arab Context: Theoretical Problems (2017); The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Daesh): A General Framework and Critical Contribution to Understanding the Phenomenon (2018); What is Populism? (2019); and  Democratic Transition and its Problems: Theoretical Lessons from Arab Experiences (2020).

His English publications include Sectarianism without Sects (Oxford University Press, 2021); On Salafism: Concepts and Contexts (Stanford University Press, 2022); ISIS: The March to Dystopia (I.B. Tauris, 2025); and his trilogy on the Arab revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria, published by I.B. Tauris, Understanding Revolutions: Opening Acts in Tunisia (2021); Egypt: Revolution, Failed Transition and Counter-Revolution (2022); and Syria 2011-2013: Revolution and Tyranny before the Mayhem (2023), in which he provides a rich theoretical analysis in addition to a comprehensive and lucid assessment of the revolutions in three Arab countries.

Bishara serves as the General Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) and the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies founded by the ACRPS.
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Siyasat Arabiya is a bi-monthly peer reviewed academic journal published by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, dedicated to political science, international relations, and strategic affairs.

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