Seminar Research Dissertation Proposal – (Strategic Studies)
Length: 20,000 words.
- NAME
PAUL RYAN
- PROPOSED TITLE OF THESIS
- AREA OF RESEARCH
- As per the above title this dissertation will look at the current Israeli involvement in cross border operations of both a military and a humanitarian stand point with regards to the Syrian regional and or civil conflict.
- The study will focus on the period from 2011 to the current date and will look at how Israel has classed its military interests in main land Syria as fair and legitimate and how it has openly engaged its conventional enemy targets in this theatre. The study will look at how Israel has begun to play a part in the support of the growing Anti-Government force within mainland Syria through supplying both military and humanitarian aid across the border.
- This dissertation will be supported by the fact that the author will be deployed in the theatre of Israel/Syria with the UN during the study. This will significantly aid to the nature of the material being used to create opinion throughout this work. This material will take the form of first-hand experience, perspective and view, conflict and operational observation of the current activity within the studied theatre as well as interviews and more common place study and reference sources.
- IMPORTANCE/INTEREST OF THE PROJECT
- Currently the global standpoint of the Israeli government is that its engagement of military targets in mainland Syria is legitimate given Israel’s concerns over the developing military capability of its main enemy, which is that of the Lebanese based Hezbollah terror organisation. Alongside this Israel has openly engaged, as it would claim, legitimate military targets on Syrian soil on numerous occasions since early 2011. This has also worked alongside its state viewpoint that it holds no view on the Syrian civil war generally and has stated itself as a Neutral onlooker in the conflict.
- The apparent situation on the ground however has shown that Israel is conducting cross border interaction with anti-government forces and therefore is playing an influencing role on how the regional conflict is evolving. This aspect of the current conflict situation is to be further explored in the dissertation.
- RANGE AND TYPE OF SOURCES TO BE USED
- See initial draft Bibliography attached
- ANALYTICAL/EVALUATIVE CONTENT OF THE THESIS
- What are Israel’s current interests, objectives and Defence policy decisions with regards to its involvement in the Syrian conflict?
- How is Israel currently affecting the conflict in Syria?
- How does Israel currently assess the Sunni Extremist threat in Main land Syria as effecting overall Israeli Sovereign security?
- Does the current IS focussed threat in Iraq, Turkey and Syria play a part in Israel’s current Defence Policy with regards to Syria alone?
- Is Israel currently trying to affect the influence of external countries such as Russia, Iran, Jordan and the US with regards to their involvement in either cross border operation in the region or indeed with regards to direct involvement in Main land Syrian Civil war activity?
- How can Israel advance its interests in Syria without opting for direct involvement in events within Syria?
- Studying how previous conflicts from the early 1960s onwards have perhaps played a part in current Syrian-Israeli relationships and how this factor may be still shaping the two states interaction today.
- Studying how the relative peace between both Syria and Israel has now been disturbed since 2013 and how that may have disrupted a possible peace agreement long term between the two states.
- ANTICIPATED CONCLUSIONS
- The development of what Israel’s current interests and motivations are for their current involvement in the Syrian conflict.
- A rounded study on how Israel is factually affecting the conflict in Syria.
- To show the core lead with regards to the Israeli involvement being that of its focus on the destruction of its Sunni Extremist threat in Main land Syria.
- A rounded conclusion to the factual effect that Israeli government influence is putting on external global powers with regard to the Syrian conflict.
- RESEARCH PLANS
- Conduct of initial dissertation draft, conduct of research interviews with approved contributors. Development of in depth research and dissertation proposal.
- The purpose of the research into the dissertation topic is to study the development of Israeli based interaction within the Syrian regional conflict which in part is not being openly admitted to in the global political platform. The research agenda for this topic is to show in part how the effect of external players either openly or otherwise, is creating new issues within the Syrian regional war on a daily basis. The research should give some factual basis to the policy and activity behind these current actions in main land Syria and show how the stand point of global neutrality with regards to the Syrian civil war which is portrayed by many large scale military and political states is not always the full picture of the true level of interaction which a given state are partaking in.
- Last working day of June for final approval of proposal from research supervisor and SREC. Last working day of July for draft proposal of circa 10,000 word submission to supervisor for directional feedback and re aligning of research topics as necessary. Final draft of submission for last working day of August for final critic and editing to final copy status for last working day of September.
Dissertation Draft Bibliography
Paper reference documents
Israel’s Interests and Options in Syria.
Larry Hanauer.
Self-published research thesis.
2016.
Causes and Consequence of the Syrian Civil War.
Chelsea Marie Baltes.
University of South Carolina –Columbia.
2016.
Israel’s Imagines Role in the Syrian Civil War.
Tha’er al-Nashef and Ofir Winter.
Strategic Assessment/ Volume 19/ No. 2/ July 2016.
Syrian Conflagration: The Syrian Civil War, 2011 – 2013.
Tom Cooper
Helion.
2015.
The Syrian Civil War: Between Escalation and Intervention.
Roland Popp, Daniel Mockli.
Eidgenossiche Technische Hohschule Zurich, Center for Security Studies.
2012.
Syria in Ruins: The Dynamics of the Syrian Civil War.
Davis S. Scorenson.
Praeger.
2016.
INSIDE SYRIA – The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can expect. Reese Erlich.
Prometheus Books.
2014.
Israel Facing a New Middle East: In Search of a National Security Strategy.
Itamar Rabinovich & Itai Brun.
Hoover Institution Pres Publication.
2017.
Beyond Syria’s Borders: A History of Territorial Disputes in the Middle East.
Emma Lundgren Jorum.
.I.B Tauris.
2014
Israel and the Arab Turmoil.
Itamar Rabinovich.
Hoover Institution Pres Publication.
2014.
Middle East Patterns: Places, People and Politics.
Colbert C. Held, John Thomas Cummings
Westview Press.
2014.
Electronic reference documents
