Psychological Operations in the Syrian War: The Actors, Objectives and Implementation Process

The Syrian War started about three years ago with the aim of putting Assad’s government aside. Due to the intervention of foreign powers in this war, some have called it a ‘vicarious war’. To win this battle, the enemies of the Syrian government, convened in a group called "the Friends of Syria", utilized a variety of tools including provision of financial and military assistance for the terrorist groups and implementation of psychological operations and propaganda against Assad’s Government. This article, first, introduces the actors in the Syrian War and, then, explores the process of psychological operations in this war and their objectives. The main objective of all instigations in Syrian was to put side Assad’s Government; therefore, the main goal of all the psychological operations conducted in the Syrian War was to prove the illegitimacy of Assad's Government, introduce the terrorist operations as public uprising and pave the way for foreign intervention. Given that after about three years of fighting, the enemies of Assad's Government have not been able to fulfill their objectives yet and the terrorists groups have been defeated in most war fronts, this article, finally, examines the causes of the failure of the psychological operations against Assad’s Government.