What is the influence of Assyrians on government and military today?

Answer 1

The question as written can be interpreted in two very distinct ways with two very distinct answers.

1) What is the influence that the Assyrian Empire and its mechanisms have had on modern governments and militaries? -- The Assyrian Empire was one of the earliest examples of a multi-ethnic multi-regional empire (there were prior empires that had multiple ethnicities and regions, but the physical, political, and social implications of such differences would not qualify them for this category). The Assyrian governing style of direct autocratic rule is still visible in many autocratic regimes. They also pioneered the concepts of concerted troop movements and long-distance campaigns. (Concerted troop movements refers to troops moving from one region to another region, not troop formations like the phalanx.) Assyrians were also responsible for creating the foundations of the modern ideas of Ethnic Cleansing and Regional Repopulation, which have both had profound (and very horrific) modern consequences.

2) What is the influence that the people who currently identify as Assyrian (a Christian group in North Iraq and Southern Syria) have on the government and military of the nations in which they live? -- In Iraq, they have minimal influence. Like other Christian minorities in Iraq, they are subject to intermittent violent attacks and a more pervasive second-class status within the country. Assyrians have served in the Iraqi Armed Forces, but very minimally and at a lower percentage than the percentage of their population. (They have even lower representation in the government.) Since the new Iraqi Regime has begun, their situation has not improved. In Syria, they have typically supported the Assad Regime because said regime has protected their rights in a very minimal way and they are afraid of pogroms against the Christian communities should they the Assad government fall. Since the Assad government and military is made up almost entirely of Alawite Shiite Moslems, they have minimal direct influence.