The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine has failed to build an international consensus for action to protect civilians in Syria. Worse, R2P’s implicit support for military action without UN authorization has contributed to the UN’s paralysis. A contribution to the openGlobalRights debate, R2P
The long-run viability of Syria will depend on economic recovery, it will not be decided by military victory on whichever side.
Two out of three Lebanese believe that the conflict in Syria could lead to a new civil war in Lebanon. For many, the question is not if there is going to be a war or not, but when it is going to break out.
Syria shows the difficulty of translating Responsibility to Protect (R2P) into action, but we must if R2P is to be more than a fancy acronym. But any military intervention must be linked to dialogue towards a political solution, and if such action proceeds without UN authorization it risks further
Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week, Syria: waiting for the Tomahawk
Opposing military intervention in Syria is not support for the brutal Assad regime. The BRICS countries can rely on strong legal and political reasons against such intervention; the Responsibility to Protect language is easily manipulated. Prudent internationalism is the better way – supporting ne
The war in Syria is illegal. If a criminal had poisoned someone, our concern would be how to protect the public from future poisonings and how to arrest the criminal and bring him (or her) before a court of law. And civil society needs to be directly involved in the talks.
The political balance in the west is moving against military involvement in Syria. Such a choice will ensure the prolongation of war, chaos, extremism, and humanitarian disaster. Only intervention will open the way to a political settlement, says Bashar Haydar.
Rapid, punitive airstrikes two and a half weeks ago, while certainly displacing some Syrians, would have been less likely to lead to larger numbers of refugees.
As the world holds its collective breath in anticipation of western military intervention, the children of Zamalka have already lost everything and the prospect of an international response means nothing to them.
Who will be there to teach us about morality, and to speak of yet another moral intervention when pictures of brutality show up on our screens, this time committed by the coalition of the “morally righteous”?
The world’s failure to respond effectively to ongoing atrocities in Syria may mean Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is down, but it’s not out. R2P still offers a principled approach to react to a chemical weapons atrocity in the face of likely Security Council vetoes. A contribution to the openGlob
