By Professor Anthony F Lang Jr is Head of School of International Relations St Andrews University.
US MISSILE strikes against the Syrian airbase surprised many, including the American State Department.
After condemning the previous administration for meddling in conflicts where the US had no direct national interest, President Trump has changed his tune. The most important questions are why and what happens next?
Testimony by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley before the UN Security Council gives the first hint. Haley dramatically brought forth photos of children killed by the use of chemical weapons, a tactic used more than once by US diplomats at the UN. It is unclear what the relationship is between Haley and Trump, but certainly the President was influenced by the pictures and whatever other evidence provided to him. This is not the first time emotive images of children dying led to an intervention; President George H W Bush ordered the US military to intervene in Somalia in 1992 after seeing pictures of children starving.
President Trump, from what we know of him, is prone to quick decision making. Moreover, as can be seen in his tweets and statements, anger plays an important role in motivating him to act. Together, the legitimate compassion for children’s deaths with his emotional response help explain this action.
But we should not explain this decision purely on the basis of President Trump’s personality. US interventions have, over time, shown a strong punitive ethos. From the attempt to capture the Mexican leader Pancho Villa in 1916 to the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, US leaders have long sought to use force to punish bad guys.
American culture provides one explanation for this tendency, which encourages a binary vision of the world and Americans are the ones to ensure a righteous outcome prevails. Making America great again includes showing everyone how good it is.
What happens next? This is where the problems start, for single strikes never produce coherent outcomes. To simply take out some of its air force and possibly destroy some of its chemical munitions will slow down attacks for a short time, but this will not solve the problem. In fact, it will undoubtedly make things worse, as the Russians gear up to defend Assad and Israel may well be pulled in.
As President Obama knew, the US has no traditional interests in Syria, a country with no oil resources and no security interests. The humanitarian argument remains the only one to motivate action, but without a long term engagement by the US, the humanitarian situation will only deteriorate.
Military actions that arise from short term bursts of anger and that punish bad guys might make Americans and others feel good in the short term, but they will not help Syria move toward a resolution of its long and bloody conflict.
Professor Anthony F Lang Jr is Head of School of International Relations St Andrews University.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel