ABSTRACT
After the reunification 1990, Germany gradually achieved limited normalization, but its security policymaking largely followed the EU’s military powers, such as those of France and the UK, and it maintained dialogues with the United States on international affairs. At the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2012, France, the UK, and Germany followed the United States and set the primary goal of overthrowing the Assad regime, which belongs to the Shiite Allawi branch. This chapter focuses on the Syrian civil war and tracks the changes in Germany’s foreign policy and stance toward the war. It analyzes German policy on Syria from international and domestic perspectives. At the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Germany and its Western allies unanimously supported the Syrian opposition, demanding that Assad step down and endeavoring to establish a democratic government in line with their wishes.
