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Aligning Europe: The Syrian Refugee Crisis and the Geopolitics of the Region



Author(s)

Sotiris Serbos, Christos Baxevanis

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2016.06.004

This article examines the Syrian refugee crisis as a case study in order to understand how foreign policy practices developed by the US in the Middle East and Europe‟s refugee policy for handling mass influxes are interconnected. With international politics evolving in a dynamic and not static manner, the authors note that the conflicts driving today‟s refugee crisis are symptomatic of the shifting structure of international system that has been developed over the past 70 years with the emphasis being placed on the regional realities and the geopolitical competitions in the Middle East. In this respect, the authors provide an overview of the changing nature of the foreign policy strategy of the US in a globalizing multi-polar world and its linkage with migration movements in the Middle East. By acknowledging and taking advantage of one of the oldest and most enduring concepts of international relations, the authors outline the dynamics of the balance of power strategy in an emerging multi-polar world and describe the prudent pursuit of an “offshore balancing” grand strategy by the US and firmly consistent with America‟s global interests. By bringing forward a framework analysis which recognizes the soaring refugee and migration flows as the spillover effect of the US sponsored “offshore balancing” regional strategy for setting the principles and paving the way towards gradually establishing a functional balance of power in the Middle East, the authors draw special attention to the influential role of the EU and its incomplete attempt, via the refugee crisis, to adjust to the US‟s grand strategy which allows for fairer shifting of global burdens and security threats with profound repercussions on regional and international stability.

Syrian refugees, offshore balancing, US foreign policy, Turkey, EU

Serbos, S., & Baxevanis, C. (2016). Aligning Europe: The Syrian refugee crisis and the geopolitics of the region. International Relations and Diplomacy, 4(6), 390-406.