ABSTRACT
Important changes in Syria’s internal and external political environments took place following the revolution of 8 March 1963 that displaced the separatists with a Ba‘th regime. In the internal environment, a new political structure was set up, characterized at first by a multi-party regime and the appearance of new political and military elites. Syria’s regime after the revolution has been identified as a military one, with power deriving from the National Council of the Revolutionary Command, the supreme authority for the state. Internal conflict between the Ba‘th Party and Nasserite linkage groups was the immediate source of the Egyptian-Syrian conflict. The Ba‘th’s aim was to moderate both the Egyptian-Syrian conflict and the internal Syrian conflict initiated by Gamal Abdel Nasser, in addition to extricating itself from political isolation in the Arab world. The ruling faction of the Ba‘th sought to exploit outside conflict with Israel in an attempt to defuse internal conflict within the party.
