Epstein Secrets

for President Assad to step aside." We invested little in aid or support to effect this. One year later, the president articulated his red line on Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons. Rightly or wrongly, he did so without obtaining a promise of congressional backing. But when proof of that use became unmi

he U.S. approach to Syria has been a combination of bluster and retreat. In August 2011, President Obama said that "the time has come for President Assad to step aside." We invested little in aid or support to effect this. One year later, the president articulated his red line on Bashar al-Assad's us

ntinues to disintegrate, Ukraine is shaken from Donetsk to Crimea, and serious tensions are rising between China and its neighbours in the East and South China Seas. More globally, the most recent report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that, if we do not shift massively away from fo

talks in Geneva aimed at resolving the £yrian civil war. This came only months after the threat of US military force against Damascus convinced the Assad regime to abandon its chemical weapons programme. In both the Far East and Europe, the Obama administration is pushing ambitious trade initiatives

f the same; NATO is in disarray; Iran's and North Korea's nuclear-weapons programs proceed unhindered; Beijing's territorial claims in the East and South China Seas go unanswered; and the global threat of terrorism continues to metastasize. And that's just a partial list. It is simply not possible for mere huma

oser to acquiring enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon. In Egypt, Islamists crowd out the liberals and the Google generation. In Syria, the Assads maintain their bloody grip on power, defying the international community and the will of their own people. As for the Israelis and Palestinians, we

America and demonstrate its willingness to abide by global norms. A good start would be to submit territorial disputes over islands in the East and South China Seas to international arbitration. Another step would be to strengthen promising regional bodies such as the East Asian Summit and ASEAN Plus Three. Abo