The formation of an official agency charged with helping Washington identify and address threats of atrocity around the world is notable. But the United States's own foreign-policy record raises serious questions over its likely impact, says Martin Shaw.
A new phase of violence in Iraq and the dynamics of the conflict in Syria provide fertile conditions for the re-emergence of the al-Qaida idea.
The shared experience of military repression and failure under Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the al-Assad dynasty in Syria is a challenge to the Arab world's political elites, says Hazem Saghieh.
What a terrible coincidence. On the third of February 2012 on the first ever commemoration of the 1982 Hama massacre, another atrocity took place in Homs's Al Khaldyia neighbourhood, but this time, with photographs and video footage.
Is every uprising against dictatorship a civil war? If that is the case then it is the case in Egypt, in Yemen, in Bahrain. Are we going to dismiss all these revolutions, because some of the people support the regimes? Or is it just Syria that is doomed?
For Israel, the opportunity to do business with Syria and break its alliance with Iran is more valuable than the Assads’ so-called contribution to the Golan Heights status quo.
A strong momentum is building for armed intervention in Syria, either by channelling arms to Syria's rebels or undertaking direct military assaults on the regime. But these proposals are based on flawed analysis and if implemented would have damaging results, says Mariano Aguirre.Also in this oS A
Many authoritarian regimes - South Africa, Chile, Poland - have ceded power to the domestic opposition through a political process. The contrast in Syria speaks volumes, says Hazem Saghieh.
The Syrian capital at first sight offers little sign of the year-long conflict tearing much of the country apart. But a closer look reveals the fractures that are straining its social fabric, says Bushra Saaed.
Beijing's refusal to support intervention in Syria in support of the rebels is founded on a mix of strategic judgment and political calculation. But this still leaves it with the challenge of defining a distinctive international role, say Kerry Brown & Cassidy Hazelbaker.
The Palestinians’ inability to claim their right has been reinforced by long-term failures of thinking and strategy in which the eclipse of politics by essentialism plays a major part. But the new aspirations sweeping the Arab world create potential for progress, says Hazem Saghieh.
The toxins of the Israel-Palestine conflict continue to spill into a region that with difficulty and with setbacks is striving to embark on a new future.
