Epstein Secrets

ident Bashar al-Assad to step down -- even if that formulation is ultimately edited out of the final draft of the resolution pending before the •. Security Council -- it is time to start making plans for the various contingencies that may erupt on "the day after." Most Western policymakers, at least in their p

e reality of what has happened to other multiethnic societies when authoritarian regimes have collapsed does not provide a comforting track record. Bosnia today has made little progress in overcoming its divisions, despite billions of dollars in aid and massive Western state-building efforts followin

ations "appear to have decided that, to better advance their own interests, they need to knock Washington down a peg or two." Especially on the UN Security Council, the two authoritarian powers will continue taking positions that reflect their interest in curtailing American influence and thwarting what they e

iling and threaten us more by their collapse into ungoverned regions — not by their strength or ability to project power. But what we've learned in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Egypt and Syria is that it is very hard to change another country's internal behavior — especially at a cost and in a ti

rst administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The United States at first resisted U.N. pressure to stop construction there, vetoing two Security Council resolutions condemning building there. In recent years, Washington's stance has toughened. When in 2010 the Israeli government announced plans to

f relations among brothers claiming the Ottoman throne. In the meantime, Israel has cultivated closer ties with Balkan countries such as Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece. It has also put in more effort to strengthen ties with Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, India and China. And sittin

day is bootless; the will of most members for a change of government in Syria, for example, is too easily blocked by the veto of a single permanent Security Council member, such as Russia. Annan gives a devastating account of some of the United Nations' errors during his decades with the organization, especiall

ns' errors during his decades with the organization, especially in his description of the peacekeeping missions in the 1990s in Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia, which he collectively describes as the organization's "greatest of failures." Somalia was a project of Annan's predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

have led of which I am proud, it is that which consists of giving voice to the humble and to those who have no voice. It is a combat I have fought in Bosnia, in the confines of Asia, in the forgotten wars of Africa but also, and as much or nearly so, in our officially democratic world where it took HOUSE_

ind Resolution 181 and to request a new resolution for the establishment of one state in historic Palestine. Although this responsibility falls under the Security Council, the constant exercise by the US of its veto power to protect Israel against condemnations and sanctions has proven the council's ineffectiveness in