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A timely and insightful look at how Bashar Assad shifted the Syrian regime's focus from national security to mere survival.

The war in Syria has split the UN Security Council and Russia’s veto continues to limit the opportunities for action. But other than that, on which institutional levels has the UN operated to live up to its responsibilities in Syria so far? A critical view of the UN-organizations and their involvement in the Syrian conflict offers a special focus on humanitarian aid, the health care sector and sexual violence. Additionally, it points out achievements and failures and gives an outlook on the potential role of the UN within the post-war order.

Syrian foreign policy, always opaque, has become an even greater puzzle during the Syrian revolt. Irrespective of the regime's international isolation in the wake of its violent response to domestic protest, it has paid lip-service to international peace plans while unperturbedly crushing the rebellion. The rare televised appearances of President Assad have shown a leader detached from reality. Has he-in his own words-'gone crazy'? In this book long- time Syria analyst and former diplomat Bente Scheller contends that Bashar Assad's deadly waiting game is following its own logic: whatever difficulties the Syrian regime has faced, its previous experience has been that it can simply sit out the current crisis. The difference this time is that Syria faces a double crisis-internal and external. While Hafez Assad, renowned as an astute politician, adapted to new challenges, his son, Bashar, seems to have no alternative plan of action. Scheller's timely book analyses Syrian foreign policy after the global upheavals of 1989, which was at the time a glorious new beginning for the regime. She shows how Bashar Assad, by ignoring change both inside Syria and in the region, has sacrificed his father's focus on national security in favour of a policy of regime survival and offers a candid analysis of the successes and shortcomings of Syrian foreign policy in recent years.

Der Syrien-Konflikt spaltet den Sicherheitsrat, die Genfer Friedensgespräche stagnieren. Angesichts dieser eingeschränkten Handlungsmöglichkeiten ist schwer absehbar, welche Rolle die Vereinten Nationen in einer Nachkriegsordnung spielen werden. The war in Syria has split the UN Security Council and Russia’s veto continues to limit the opportunities for action. But other than that, on which institutional levels has the UN operated to live up to its responsibilities in Syria so far? A critical view of the UN-organizations and their involvement in the Syrian conflict offers a special focus on humanitarian aid, the health care sector and sexual violence. Additionally, it points out achievements and failures and gives an outlook on the potential role of the UN within the post-war order.