| Mazen Salhi | Engineer | Canada |
Re: ‘Syria's foreign policy’
Since moving to Canada last year, the word ??news? has almost taken a new meaning for me. News over here consistently seems to mean little more than the weather, tax laws, traffic jams, and election campaigns. But that is hardly a surprise for a country like Canada. with only one country sharing its borders, a young history, enormous resources and a stable democratic system, the fallouts of accumulative human competition, fears and conflicts have not yet caught up with Canada. It will be indeed interesting to see how Canada performs against those inevitable forces in the future, but that??s another story.
For better or for worse, Syria does not enjoy such abstractness. It is a country with a heavy burden of history and religion on its shoulders. A country with limited resources yet a rapidly growing population, and one that shares its borders with five trouble-bound states, and still has to worry about being at the cross hairs of an unpredictable superpower. It has occupied lands, yet still houses hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, two million Iraqis, and last year it also took in some seven hundred thousand Lebanese. The strain is not helped by the seemingly incurable corruption that infests most of its institutions. And let??s not forget the burden of history, which Syria has got tons of. So much so that it’s almost crushing its future.
For example, on a typical drive from Aleppo to Damascus (the world’s two oldest continuously inhabited cities), travelers stop at Ma??arra for breakfast. This is where the first Crusade (mostly French) ran out of food on their way to Jerusalem, and ended up barbecuing local children for dinner. Down near Idlib is the tomb of the fifth Arab Muslim Caliph Omar bin Abdelaziz of the powerful Omayyad state which once ruled the Islamic world from Damascus… the capital of an empire that extended from India to Spain. Then you reach Maaloula, a little Christian town whose inhabitants are the only group of people in the world who still speak Aramaic, the same language that Jesus spoke.
Even the genetic pool carries remnants of this ??rich? history. The kids playing by the road side in this village are dark and curly haired, while their peers a few miles down the road are golden blond. The social and cultural mosaic is as colorful and diverse as the huge two thousand year old wall mosaics that were once the landscaping rage in this land.
But complex realities are not all bad. The world is a complex and diverse place to start with, and countries that fully realize that fact and feel its implications tend to be less reckless in their choices. On the other hand, populations and leaders that think they’re super unique and detached from the different “others” tend to be more exclusive, elitist and hostile toward those they see as infidels, goyems, coloured, or plain non-democratic, since Democracy is the new religion.
When one puts all of this in perspective, I think it would be fair to say that the modern Syrian state has to a good extent succeeded in affirming the country??s identity, celebrating its diversity yet maintaining a distinct common character. Syrian society can in fact make credible claims to being a tolerant and successfully diverse culture. Modern Syria has acted strongly against radical fundamentalist movements. It protected the Christians of Lebanon from potential uprooting by extremist forces in Lebanon (some of whom are preaching about peace, freedom and independence today,) and it opposed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Nevertheless, the gravity of religion, political history and oil companies is always looming overhead when making decisions about the country??s regional and international political relations.
From all of the above, we can pretty much be certain that no matter how hostile the Saudis grow towards Syria, the Syrian government cannot break it with Saudi Arabia, which houses Mecca and Medina and influences the lives of a great many Syrians through religion and sheer economics. Also, no matter how costly the influx of Iraqi refugees may be on the Syrian infrastructure, Syria cannot afford to turn its back on them, with so much in common with the Iraqi people. And no matter what lows the likes of Junblat – who suggested in Washington recently to send car bombs to Damascus – sink to in Lebanon, Syria cannot and should not break it with Lebanon either. Decision trees are as complex as the realities in the land that gave the world agriculture.
So much for not reaching the point of no return with these countries, but what about active diplomacy and the right allocation of priorities? Well, to start with, there is no doubt that the times are dangerous and literally anything can happen. The first priority should be to avoid a large scale war that could be devastating to the country. I think the regime is right about emphasizing relations with countries that make their own decisions. In that sense, it is vital for Syria to maintain and promote excellent relations with Russia, Iran, Turkey, China, India, the European Union and Canada.
Syria absolutely must build and maintain economical, military, and even cultural and social ties with these countries. I also think that Syria should work to restore and nourish its historical ties with Egypt. Egypt shares many similarities with Syria and the two countries have much more in common than at odds. Egypt can be key to Syria??s future and I??m afraid that not enough is being done on that front.
As for the Jolan Heights, they??re not going anywhere. Syria must absolutely not give up its right to the full land, but there??s no need to start a war. She must, however, be very ready to fight a war that might become forced on her.
One thing that I think the regime is severely lacking vis- -vis ??other countries,? is the use of soft power, and in particular the media. No matter how I think about it, I cannot find any excuse for leaving the arena empty for the almost exclusively anti-Syrian Arab media. The media makes and maintains public opinion. Public opinion translates into mass decisions that eventually heavily impact the well being of the country. Public opinion manifests itself in decisions on strategic and personal investments in the country, on workforce outward or inward immigration, on the population??s political orientation, and on public resistance or susceptibility to the relentless foreign influence. As an instrument of international relations, I think that Syria should play an active role in Arab media and not leave the stage totally unattended as it is doing today. The media is one layer in the overall complex reality of relations with each of those countries, just as economics, diplomacy and the military are layers as well.
It is a weakness to have vacuum at any layer.
No one knows what will happen in the coming few months or years. The US may come back to its senses and stop resorting to deadly force to solve its issues with smaller, weaker countries. Or it may choose to flex its muscles yet another time around, with unforeseeable consequences. However, all storms eventually pass, and this is no exception, even though the worst may not have come yet. And when the storm passes, the regional satellites will instantaneously lose steam and start looking down from the high tree they’ve climbed. Whatever it does, Syria must maintain a moral high ground at every major step she makes. And finally, the most important force that the Syrian government should enhance relationships with is its own people, the very essence of its enduring mosaic.
(16 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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