Ülkeiçi Karar Verme Ortamı Çerçevesinde Suriye İç Savaşı Öncesi ve Sırası Irak'ın Suriye ile İlişkileri

This paper examines Iraq’s foreign policy toward Syria before and during the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011. It presents an overview of the restoration of relations between the two countries that have been hostile since their formation, with a view to tracing the factors behind the rapprochement during the Syrian uprising. Drawing from some concepts of the neoclassical realist perspective, such as the domestic decision-making environment, the paper seeks under which international and domestic factors the Iraqi leadership inhabits with respect to restoring and resuming relations with the Syrian regime. The paper argues that the Iraqi leadership is obliged to support the Syrian regime owing to its strategic interests in receiving support from the Iraqi parliament.