The “Geopolitical” Factor in the Syrian Civil War: A Corpus-Based Thematic Analysis

Abstract

This study analyzes the key attributions of the Assad regime’s failure to end the protracted Syrian Civil War. It analyzes why it has taken the Assad regime so long to win back most of its territory despite tremendous support from Iran and Russia against fragmented oppositions who received jaded, half-hearted Western assistance. The article adopts a corpus-based, thematic analysis approach and uses primary and predominantly secondary data to examine Syrian domestic politics, as well as regional and global geopolitics. It explores how the three main geopolitically related themes contribute to the state of Syria as of mid-2018. The findings point toward several issues, including the regime’s dire manpower shortage, a severe lack of economic and social wherewithal, and Assad’s hard, inflexible stance on negotiations in addition to his corruption and brutality, which are among the key reasons for the current state of the Syrian conflict.