Following the same vein I have in the past, the Syrian conflict has a great impact on the global society as well as just the region. Through an International Political Economic approach, one can analyze that Syria is in grave trouble for the future and its impact on the world will have a strong influence in progression of globalization. The International Political Economy approach argues that the world will turns towards the economic (private) sector in the future, for national growth. In the case of this article from BBC, Syria is going to have a very difficult time rebuilding towards the same goal of globalization as the rest of the world.
According to this article, Syria’s economic output has shrunk by as much as 60% since 2011. This is devastating enough for the country’s economic development and growth, aside from the decrease resulting from the death count of Syrian people. The IPE theory would examine this situation as non-liberal, non-realist, but capitalist. With 23% of the population either dead or refugees in other countries, most of the economic growth in the region is that of a “war economy”. Given Syria’s fragmented government, this article also addresses Assad’s distorted view of the economy. President Assad has been publicizing figures and numbers that are much higher than the actual economic state of the country, as to portray the idea that the international sphere does not worry about the economic state of the nation. This “maintaining of the fiction” seems to be an IPE approach, because Assad is directing the country’s interests towards its capitalist future, away from a left or right leaning focus.
Another huge issue the country is addressing is that of foreign aid and how the remaining residents are surviving in Syria. According to IPE, the nation is run via civil society, government and the economic sector. The economic sector is suffering greatly because of loss of population in Syria, as well as the government is spending around 20% more than it is making. The EU has an export ban on the country’s oil, as to stop their intervention in the conflict, which is problematic in that it even further stunts the country’s international economic impact.
Lastly, it is important to note that the Syrian banking sector is still up and running. Through an IPE perspective, one could say this is due to the importance of the private sector in the nation. This is due to the warlord merchants taking control of the economy and taking all of the high-earning jobs available in the society. Therefore, the economy is still functioning, but what about the other two necessary parts of a nation? The government is a façade, which the citizens obviously cannot relate to. The civil society has been completely fragmented, leaving only minimal parts of the population intact. The question the international society and IPE theorists are asking is: How does one rebuild Syria as to bring it back into the capitalist world we are globalizing into?
Children in Conflict Countries 