Explaining foreign policy change: The role of transnational non-state actors in the Syrian civil war
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2026
Department/School
Political Science
Publication Title
Electronic Journal of Social Change and Strategic Studies
Abstract
Foreign policy change deals with the shift – major or minor, in a state’s foreign policy. The parameters that account for such a change are understood in terms of their nature (structural or conjunctural) and origin (domestic or international). Existing literature is inadequate to explain international conjunctural parameters in understanding foreign policy change. Most of the existing research concentrates on state as the unit of analysis. The impact of transnational non- state actors (NSA) to bring about such change is largely overlooked. It is hypothesized that the presence or absence of a transnational NSA in an international security crisis significantly influences the foreign policy decision of a state acting as a third-party. Specifically, the rise or presence of a transnational NSA realigns third-party foreign policy towards active intervention, whereas in its absence, interventions generally tend to be passive. This paper concentrates on the Syrian civil war as a case study to explain the influence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a transnational NSA in bringing about change in United States’ foreign policy as a third-party in the conflict.
Link to Published Version
Recommended Citation
Mukherjee, C. (2026). Explaining foreign policy change: The role of transnational non-state actors in the Syrian civil war. Electronic Journal of Social Change and Strategic Studies, 6(3), 380–397. https://doi.org/10.47362/EJSSS.2026.6301
Comments
C. Mukherjee is a faculty member in EMU's Department of Political Science.