Voices
Assad declares the location of all
of his chemical agents and they
can be safely and securely destroyed, this “diplomatic” solution to the current stage of the
crisis in Syria may prevent a formal military response from the
U.S. and one or two allies (which
is not much of a coalition) for
the time being. But it is unlikely
to prompt Mr. Assad to the negotiating table, since the Syrian
government currently has the
momentum in the conflict, and
Iran and Russia have reiterated
their continuing support for the
Assad regime. What is likelier
to happen is that the military
and diplomatic stalemate will
continue for some time to come,
exacerbating the world’s greatest
humanitarian crisis and the suffering of the Syrian people, with
no end in sight.
It is troubling that Mr. Obama
appears so willing to consider imposing military action without a
UN mandate, and therefore in violation of international law. The use
of chemical weapons, unpunished,
of course sets a dangerous and unfortunate precedent, but so does
the idea of bypassing international
norms and standards, which the
U.S. was instrumental in putting
DANIEL
WAGNER
HUFFINGTON
09.15.13
into place. In the face of overwhelming global opposition to attacking Syria without the sanction
of the international community, it
is regrettable that such an option
has even been seriously considered by the Obama administration.
Russia and China’s numerous and
ongoing vetoes of UN resolutions
regarding Syria should be ample
reason to revisit the question of
which nations should be consid-
The use of chemical
weapons, unpunished,
of course sets a dangerous
and unfortunate precedent,
but so does the idea of
bypassing international
norms and standards.”
ered “permanent” members of the
UN Security Council, and indeed,
whether the members of the UNSC
should be permanent at all. The
current members remain a relic of
the World War II era and not representative of the world
we live in today.
Daniel Wagner is CEO of Country
Risk Solutions, a cross-border risk
advisory firm.