When to Talk to Monsters

By CHRISTOPHER R. HILL (via NYTimes.com)

THE United States and Russia will soon hold a peace conference aimed at ending the Syrian civil war, which has killed more than 70,000 people, displaced millions of others and threatened the stability of the entire region.

The Obama administration’s decision to engage Russia in diplomatic talks is a good but belated one. Russia, a key backer of the Syrian government, cannot by itself end the war, any more than the United States can. But together with countries likeBritain, there is a chance, however slim, of a diplomatic breakthrough. The real shortcoming of the administration’s policy on Syria has not been an unwillingness to engage militarily — as critics of President Obama have suggested — but the ill-advised decision, in August 2011, to preclude the possibility of a diplomatic resolution involving all sides....

I’ve learned from painful experience that there are no guarantees in the peace-building business. Negotiations over Kosovo, at which I represented the United States as a special envoy, brought the European Union and the United States together, but did not end the war...

Read more [HERE].

Christopher R. Hill, dean of the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, has been the United States ambassador to Macedonia, Poland, South Korea and Iraq, an assistant secretary of state and an envoy to negotiations over Kosovo and North Korea.

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Permalink Reply by John C. Turley on May 24, 2013 at 12:13pm

I see a return to diplomacy by the World Powers that largely kept the peace in Europe from the Congress of Vienna until the outbreak of World War I. Instead of resorting to military engagement, the USA,albeit late to the table, is wise to pursue diplomatic efforts with Russia, the UK, and possibly France to stop the escalation of violence in Syria.

The modern day diplomatic skills of Metternich, Bismarck, Disraeli and Elihu Root combined with the power of technology are needed to weigh into the Syrian crisis, not an increase of arms shipments or threats of foreign troop deployments to aide any side. Peacekeepers perhaps as a consequence of the diplomatic efforts to separate the combatants and to restore the peace.