The political economy of foreign policy: the case of Syria during the rule of Husni al-Za ' im, March-August 1949

Abstract

This paper adopts a political economy approach to examine Syria's foreign policy during the eventful rule of Husni al-Za ' im in the immediate post-independence period. In this endeavour, Syria's foreign policy objectives have been derived from the basic characteristics it shared with other states of the global South that came to independent statehood with varying degrees of underdevelopment, dependence, vulnerability and permeability. Hence, the acquisition of foreign economic resources has been considered alongside the objectives of independence/autonomy and leadership maintenance/regime consolidation. The contention of this paper is that the interaction of these objectives as a complex process involving trade-offs is worth pursuing because it provides fundamental insights into a state's foreign policy and contributes to its understanding.