Author(s)

Jan-Erik Lane^*

Fellow with Public Policy Institute, Belgrade, The Republic of Serbia.

The political violence seems only to get worse and worse in Aleppo, where Russian bombers target hospitals and employ deep striking missiles against the apartments of ordinary citizens. State reasons or merely shortsighted cruelty? Those who theorize zero sum games with entities like state interests and geopolitical perspective should understand that it is merely a manner of speaking. The principle of methodological individualism entails that only human beings can be actors as well as that they orientate in terms of what Max Weber called “Sinn” or more complex “sinnzusammenhaenge”. This is intentional analysis that focuses upon the mindset of the participants in violent games. It is definitely not in the interests of neither the Syrian people nor the Russian people what Assad-Putin is performing in Aleppo.

Reasons of State, Methodological Individualism, “Bringing the State Back in”, Subjective and Objective Benefits, Costs and Probabilities, Means-End Relationships, Alawites

Lane, J. (2017) Aleppo II: Not Bringing the State Back in. Open Journal of Political Science, 7, 55-64. doi: 10.4236/ojps.2017.71005.