Syria was flooded by mass protests in 2011 that spread across North Africa during the Arab
Spring. These protests soon turned violent and a few months later, Syria officially entered a
civil war. If Syria had previously been a successful developing country that engaged the EU
about possibly entering an agreement, the question always arises as to how and why it all
began. The regime's ruthlessness in suppressing the demonstrations did not seem to have
triggered the violence, but it also appears that similar to the massacre in Hama in 1982, the
protesters were prepared and organized to fight the regime, while it is not clear exactly
who started the violence.
This master's thesis offers an in-depth study of the causes that could lead to civil war; from
economic reforms, terrorism and external actors to the potential impacts of energy
geopolitics and natural resources on developments in Syria.
The methods used in the construction of the assignment are, in particular, the study,
analysis and proper interpretation of secondary sources, such as books, e-articles, statistics
and analyses, articles of newspapers and scientific journals.
The work is primarily a contribution to the social environment, providing findings in the
area of the Syrian conflict and identifying who actually initiated it, as well as identifying the
influence of the world's superpowers on the media, which can mislead us into
understanding the civil war in Syria.
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