The competition over norms: the case of the Syrian conflict

In the wave of uprisings engulfing the Middle East, the Syrian conflict started as a nationwide peaceful protest by the Syrian population for dignity. It has since become a protracted, internationalised war where regional and global rivals exploit a people’s struggle to further their own political and economic agendas. In the wave of uprisings sweeping across the Middle East in 2010 and 2011, it is over Syria that the global powers, namely, the USA, Russia, and China, have competed most intensely over the international norms that influence how and when intervention should take place and what constitutes sovereignty and in whom it is vested. This chapter argues that since the Responsibility to Protect was invoked by the West to legitimise NATO-backed regime change in Libya, Russia and China have sought to eliminate the risk of a repetition of this in Syria. United Nations Security Council vetoes, diplomatic manoeuvring to prevent Western intervention, the establishment of the Astana peace process, the elimination of cross-border aid routes, and the promotion of al-Asad’s rehabilitation have promoted an unconditional conception of sovereignty and a multipolar global order wherein democracy and equality exist between states no matter their internal governance system.