Turkey’s Security Dilemma on the Border with Syria: Situation Assessment and Perspectives of the Intervention

Abstract Employing the concept of the security dilemma, the article aims to assess the situation on the Turkey-Syria border and discusses perspectives of Turkey’s humanitarian intervention in northern Syria. In the first section of the article an analysis of Turkey’s foreign policy and its implications on Syria’s crisis is provided. The second section deals with arguments for and against the intervention. Later on, international law and military provisions are discussed as well as the possible implications of an intervention. The main thesis of this article is that if Turkey chose to solve its security dilemma by means of a humanitarian intervention, the UN Security Council’s approval would greatly enhance the chances of its success. Otherwise, unilateral intervention could even further diminish the possibility of finding a faster solution to the Syrian crisis and regional peace and stability in general.