ABSTRACT
Since the 1982 war in Lebanon, in which the Syrians suffered a military defeat and had to withdraw from Beirut, from the Shouf mountains and from parts of the Beqaa valley, Syria has emerged as a regional super power endeavouring to achieve ‘strategic balance’ with Israel. Towards this end, Syria has made great efforts to increase its standing armed forces to more than half a million soldiers and to supply this army with the most sophisticated weapons. Can the Syrian economy sustain the immense outlays that such a military ambition entails — spending on a scale which creates economic vulnerability even among the strongest economies of the world?
