This chapter explores the foreign policy discourse of the old Anglosphere coalition during the fourth phase of the crisis and civil war in Syria, following the military intervention of Russia, in support of Assad. First, the chapter considers the Anglosphere response to the Russian intervention. Second, it analyses how the intervention influenced the discursive war of position in the Anglosphere. Third, it explores the impact of Donald Trump’s election in the United States, including his administration’s relationship with Russia, the unexpected decision to bomb Assad’s forces and the new discursive opportunities his presidency afforded.

This chapter explores the foreign policy discourse of the old Anglosphere coalition during the second phase of the crisis and civil war in Syria. First, the chapter analyses Obama’s warning of a ‘red line’ over chemical weapons use. Second, it explores the route out of the rhetorical entrapment enacted by this phrase. Third, it maps out the discursive debates on war and peace that divided the international community and ran through the Anglosphere in 2012 and 2013. The analysis of this second phase establishes the context in which Islamic State would shoot to prominence at the start of 2014, altering the nature of the crisis and civil war, as well as the language and calculations of Anglosphere states.

This chapter explores the foreign policy discourse of the old Anglosphere coalition during the first phase of the crisis and civil war in Syria, from early 2011 to mid 2012. First, the chapter considers the Anglosphere response to the Arab Uprisings, as protests spread to Syria. Second, it analyses the evolution of Anglosphere foreign policy discourse, as Assad’s crackdowns intensified. Third, it analyses calls for regime change and support for regional allies, amidst a policy of not intervening militarily. In all three cases, the USA is shown to lead, within a nevertheless intimately interconnected old Anglosphere coalition. This analysis sets the ground for shifting Anglosphere foreign policy from August 2012, as chemical weapons concerns rapidly overtook a policy of democracy promotion at a distance.

This chapter explores the linguistic dynamics of war and peace. It does so in order to establish a theoretical framework to facilitate the book’s subsequent analysis of Anglosphere wars of position – policy debates concerning military intervention and its avoidance. First, the chapter considers the nature and relationship of language, rhetoric, narrative and discourse, exploring the ways in which meaning production can become regulated. Second, the chapter develops a three-part understanding of resonance, bringing together literatures on electoral strategy, affect and assemblages, with more familiar notions of appeals to or interpellations of identity. Third, the chapter develops a three-part understanding of representational force, combining insights on rhetorical entrapment, rhetorical balancing and rhetorical coercion. Fourth, the chapter considers how meaning production can become hegemonic as dominant discourses win out within a discursive war of position.

The conclusion revisits the book’s three principal themes: language, the Anglosphere and Syria. First, it maps out the significant theoretical implications for understanding the way in which language, discourse and policy intertwine across the transnational political space of the Anglosphere. Second, it notes that military intervention in Syria has once again served to reinforce the ties that bind together the old Anglosphere coalition. Third, it reflects on the scale of the crisis in Syria, as well as the prospects for the country and its people going forward.

This chapter explores the foreign policy discourse of the old Anglosphere coalition during the third phase of the crisis and civil war in Syria. First, the chapter considers the Anglosphere response to the rise of Islamic State, as the Anbar Campaign saw the group seize territory in northern Iraq. Second, it analyses the re-working of discourses of the War on Terror to articulate and frame the new threat for Anglosphere audiences. Third, it explores the discursive war of position that structured foreign policy debates in the USA, UK and Australia. The chapter explores how, despite some resistance, the Anglosphere rallied against the new threat in contrast to the Syrian Civil War’s first two phases.

This chapter explores the underpinnings, development and impact of an ‘old Anglosphere coalition’. First, the chapter considers the nature of a coalition of the English-speaking countries at two levels: the Anglosphere, and its core USA–UK–Australia alliance. Second, the chapter explores the Anglosphere’s various underpinnings, linking nuanced but overlapping identities to shared language, cultural commonalities and intertwined histories, including racialised narratives and an enduring proclivity for expeditionary warfare. Here, the drivers of the Anglosphere are considered in full, despite the limitations of mainstream norms in the study of Politics, International Relations, and their subdisciplines. Third, the chapter considers the recent and contemporary implications of this alliance, setting the ground for the subsequent analysis of Anglosphere foreign policy in Syria.

The Introduction asks three questions: (i) Why study Syria? (ii) Why focus on the foreign policies of the USA, UK and Australia? And, (iii) Why analyse language? First, the case is made for the study of Syria as the principal crisis on the planet today. Second, the case is made for the study of three of the world’s leading interventionist states, intimately connected through a sense of shared values, culture and identity, which propels them into repeated patterns of coalition warfare. Third, the case is made that policy responses and possibilities are contingent upon their discursive architectural foundations. Finally, the Introduction maps out the structure and arguments of the book.

This chapter traces the development of the crisis and civil war in Syria through the identification of four distinct but overlapping phases, which structure and set the context for the analysis in the book’s second half. The focus here is on domestic developments within Syria, rather than Anglosphere foreign policy. First, the origins of the crisis are mapped out, beginning with the regional Arab Uprisings in the spring of 2011. During this phase of the conflict, the crisis in Syria developed as a battle for human rights and democratic reform. Second, the chapter traces the war’s next phase, which was dominated by concerns about – and the use of – chemical weapons, following Obama’s 2012 pronouncement of a red line and the subsequent attack in Ghouta in 2013. Third, the chapter charts the rise of Islamic State in 2014. In this period, Syria became the epicentre of a new War on Terror. Fourth, from late summer 2015, the chapter traces the emergence of Syria as an explicit site of Great Power proxy warfare, following the intervention of Russia on behalf of Assad.