Russian Foreign Policy Toward Libya and Syria and its Impact on the Political Transformations and Development in Both Countries Between The Years 2011 – 2014

This Study seeks to analyze the effect of the Russian external policy towards Lybia and Syria on the transformations existing in both countries since 2011, as well as on the political development in the both countries, in order to clarify the objectives lying behind the policy which Russia followed towards those two countries, to know the Russian interest behind following its policy towards the two countries, to reveal the Russian policy tendencies towards them since the Arab transformations and to reveal the interests which Russia achieves or has achieved as a result of following this policy towards Lybia and Syria. This study also seeks to know whether there is an affect on the region and on the international system behind this policy in addition to evaluate to what extent this policy affects the political development in both countries. The importance of this study lies in the comparison between the Russian policy towards both countries and to what extent are the differences between its policy towards Lybia and towards Syria. This study raised several questions on the Russian external policy towards Lybia and Syria and on the deference between the Russian policy towards Lybia and Syria. To answer these questions, the study presented a group of hypotheses including the following: the Russian external policy tendencies towards Lybia and Syria are not much deferent from the Russian external policy towards the world as a whole. These tendencies are relations governed by interests, Russia has numerous interests with Syria as much more than its interests with Lybia. Therefore, Syria is more important than Lybia for Russia. The disparity between the Russian policy towards Lybia and Syria lies in that Russia benefitted from its experience with the west in Lybia which generated Russian non- satisfaction about the interventions of the western countries in taking international decisions of human dimensions through the United Nations General Assembly. So, Russia stands against the similar decisions of the United Nations General Assembly in Syria because its distrust in the intentions of the western countries in addition that the study supposes that the Russian role in Syria contributes to create political transformations which will be reflected on the whole Arab Islamic region. This Study was divided into six parts in addition to the introduction and the conclusion. The First Part is the theoretical framework; the Second Part is the Russian external policy and the Russian ascension in the world; The Third Part is the Russian external policy towards Lybia; the Fourth Part is the Russian external policy towards Syria; the Fifth Part is a comparison between the Russian external policy towards each of Lybia and Syria; and the Sixth and last Part is the effect of the Russian external policy towards Lybia and Syria on the political development in both countries. In conclusion, this study concluded that Russia has long relations with each of Lybia and Syria; and it has numerous interests with both countries. But even if its interests with Lybia are economical, its interests with Syria are strategic as Syria forms a special importance for Russia because Syria is the most magnificent ally for Russia in the Arab and Islamic region. The study also concluded that Russia learned the lesson from the Lybian subject, and it seeks not to allow the Lybian drama to be repeated in Syria; i.e to control the external intervention. In Addition, the Russian role in both countries caused transformations at Arab and Islami regional level, and changes at the international arena. Russia appeared with its strong effective presence which says to the west countries that they are not alone at the international arena; and Russia has interests that should be respected. The study also concluded that the political development process should stem from inside society and not be imposed from outside. So, the attempts to impose democracy and political development on the Arab countries from outside, especially from the United States of America, led to reverse results. Therefore, especially within the period of the transformations which the region live, it is inevitable that the political development process should be resulted from the internal dialogue which Russia has supported since the beginning of the Arab crises and transformations, although the Russian external policy does not give importance to the form of regime and the internal political structure of the state with which it has relations as long as the Russian external policy does not affect the political development process in Lybia and Syria, which basically suffer from great weakness.