Mirage of retrenchment: Obama and the syrian conflict

Abstract

This chapter analyses US policy toward the Syrian conflict under the Obama administration. It critically engages with perceptions of disengagement and waning influence of the US in the Syrian conflict and more broadly in the Middle East. What is usually perceived as retrenchment and disengagement of the US is viewed in the chapter as ambiguity resulting from the strategy of the Obama administration to pursue US objectives through indirect and undercover operations. The chapter analyses continuity and change from Bush to Obama in US policies towards the Middle East, as well as the strategies through which the US has pursued its imperial ambitions in the Syrian conflict. In doing so, the chapter highlights that Obama's policy of leading from behind was actually not a sign of US decline in the Middle East, but of resilience and leadership by stealth.