When Enough is Enough.

Featured in The Pryer

Thursday 2^nd of August should have been a wake up call for the International Community and yet for most the news of Kofi Annan’s resignation as special envoy of the UN and League of Arab States for Syria will not have registered. This is the depressing reality of international politics today. Whilst stories of victims in Aleppo continued to be broadcast many fail to realise that it is time for serious change.

For lack of a better phrase, the twenty – first century is stuck in a rut and going nowhere very fast. This needs to change and not only because the crisis in Syria has reached critical point. Look at all policies regarding domestic and international politics in the last century. How much has effectively changed? Not much is the answer.

Yes, there have been slight shifts here and there and the odd successful international policy but we are still stuck in the same relationships and organisations that grind to a halt at the prospect of action, we are still vulnerable to economic downturns due to the folly of others, we still have nuclear weapons despite decades of trying to eliminate them and we still live under the loom of distant war whether it be with Iran, China, North Korea or whoever. Effectively, the International System has ground to a halt.

In his farewell letter for The Financial Times Annan wrote “The UN has condemned the further descent to civil war but the fighting still goes on with no sign of relief for Syrians…while the Security Council is trapped in stalemate, so too is Syria.” Annan’s words are cutting in their truth about an entire political system that relies on age old alliances to save a situation despite an unwillingness for anyone to step forward and act.

Whilst reading Keith Payne on the topic of the popular Cold War theory of nuclear deterrence and its future, I was struck by his assessment of U.S defense policy and America’s reliance on a theory created in Cold War context. In his book he writes, “The confidence in deterrence that typified the Cold War is presumed to apply in China and to rogue states as if dramatic changes in opponent and context are irrelevant.” The argument being, that much has changed in the system and yet America has failed to grasp that policies might need to change alongside.

The United Nations has been symbolic of the step towards international cooperation since the end of the Second World War yet is now seemingly used as an excuse by all nations to shrug off responsibilities; Likewise the ever-popular Non – Nuclear Proliferation Treaty or the European Union. Where direct action has been necessary in the past these symbols of international cooperation have provided an excuse not to.

So far so dramatic, but think of examples. Had one of the nuclear states stepped up and eliminated nuclear stockpiles many would have followed yet states continue to splutter and negotiate. Had one country in Europe spoken up about the spending of others long before crisis hit perhaps the euro zone would have fared slightly better.  Had one country spoken up against Russian and Chinese reluctance to assist in Syria perhaps more forces would have been sent and Aleppo would not have suffered like they are doing so today.

Whilst this all sounds idealistic, maybe we should recognize that our system is failing and change is needed. Can we honestly say the United Nations is working? Can we hold our heads high and say we are doing all we can? Can we point to one nation that is providing necessary leadership? The West has long heralded its system of democracy and international cooperation as the one to emulate but are we failing to recognize that systems are crumbling and we should return to the drawing board? If Kofi Annan cannot see a way forward without change, then perhaps we should take note.