The The normalization of relations with the Syrian government and its effect on the European Union’s foreign policy

Abstract

Syria’s return to the League of Arab States symbolized the culmination of a process of normalization of Arab states’ relations with the government of Bashar al-Assad that had been years underway. The aim was to foster the participation of the Syrian regime in finding a solution to the problems that the armed conflict had exported to the entire region. This process, however, contradicts the European Union’s position since 2011, so the situation creates a new scenario with implications for the European foreign policy in Syria. Thus, the aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to analyze the phenomenon of the normalization of relations with the Syrian government, with special emphasis on the factors that drove the Arab states’ change of position; and, on the other hand, to consider the effects that regional normalization has had on the European Union’s foreign policy towards Syria.