What the West Owes Syrians

Abstract

In What the West Owes Syrians, Diana Bashur explores another significant post-uprising reality, Syrian refugees and the costs involved in hosting them by Western countries. Here Bashur is seeking to draw our attention to an important, yet largely ignored, correlation between the profit incurred through arms sales by Western countries to countries that have provided support to the armed opposition and the costs involved in hosting Syrian refugees in the West. Bashur eloquently contrasts the extent to which the West was enthusiastic about the Arab Spring with the significant increase in arms sales to the region by EU and the US, 23% and 300% respectively. Bashur leaves us with the sobering probability that some European politicians “… may have opted for a tradeoff: making their taxpayers shoulder the short-term cost of hosting refugees in exchange for profits to the arms industry.”