Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
BRISMES Annual Conference 2021 (Online): Knowledge, Power and Middle Eastern Studies at University of Kent, Coventry, Birleşik Krallık, 5 - 09 Temmuz 2021, ss.51
Abstract/Özet:
Since the rise of ISIS in 2014, the Syrian Kurds (PYD)
had been lobbying the US by strategically framing their fight against ISIS in
Syria through the “protection of Europe/West” and “only effective force against
ISIS” frames. Through content analysis of parliamentary debates and mainstream
newspapers in the US and interviews with US policymakers from the rise of ISIS
in 2014 until the end of the Obama administration in 2017, the paper examines
the framing efforts of Syrian Kurds in the context of Benford and Snow’s (2000)
concept of strategic framing and the responsiveness of the US to this framing
by reconceptualising the concept of responsiveness in ethnic lobbying through
Benford and Snow (2000), Snow and Corrigall-Brown (2005) and Kornprobst’s
(2019) explanations for framing success. The paper argues that compared to the
protection of Europe/West strategic frame, the US was more responsive to the
“only effective force against ISIS” strategic frame of the PYD and its
responsiveness towards the protection of Europe/West frame increased following
the interest-based military alliance between the US-led global coalition and
the YPG since the ISIS siege on Kobane in September 2014, which can be
explained through the changing policy objectives of US in Syria after the rise
of ISIS.
Keywords: Ethnic Lobbying,
Strategic Framing, Responsiveness, Syrian Kurds, Kobane, Fighting ISIS