Huffington Magazine Issue 66 | Page 37

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.