Editor's Note: The following is reprinted with the permission of the Council on Foreign Relations.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Sudanese air raids on South Sudan and called on the neighboring countries to engage in dialogue, amid an escalating conflict over the countries' shared oil-rich border area (al-Jazeera). However, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir rejected negotiations with the South yesterday, saying "our talks with them were with guns and bullets." Meanwhile, on a visit to China, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir told Chinese President Hu Jintao that Sudan had declared war on South Sudan. China, an ally with significant interests in both Sudans, called on the two sides to exercise "calm and restraint" (Reuters). FULL POST

Editor's Note: Stewart Patrick is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Program on International Institutions and Global Governance at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security.

By Stewart Patrick, CFR.org

At first glance, this Monday’s high-level event in the U.N. General Assembly would appear to confirm the worst suspicions of U.N. skeptics. Given all the crises engulfing the globe, what geniuses in New York decided to have the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan host a daylong special session on “Happiness.”What the heck is going on in Turtle Bay? More than meets the eye, in fact. One of the hottest fields in development economics has been, believe it or not, happiness research. And it turns out that the government in Thimpu may have something wise to say on the subject. FULL POST

Editor’s Note: David Schenker is the Aufzien fellow and director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.  

By David Schenker – Special to CNN

President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to U.N. envoy and former Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s six-point plan to end the bloodshed in Syria.  Al-Assad was wise to do so.  The U.N. initiative, which endorses al-Assad’s oversight of a “political process to address the legitimate aspirations” of the Syrian people - is a boon to the dictator and a setback for the opposition.

Al-Assad had little to lose by signing on to the plan.  The concessions he made in the deal- - the ceasefire, the ensuring of humanitarian assistance, a release of political prisoners, allowing entry to journalists, and permitting demonstrations - can all be reversed relatively quickly.  FULL POST

Editor's Note: Robert M. Danin is Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a former Director for the Levant and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs at the National Security Council. He writes the blog Middle East Matters at CFR.org.

By Robert M. Danin

Kofi Annan, the newly appointed United Nations and Arab League envoy to Syria, travels to the Middle East today to kick off his diplomatic efforts. He will stop first in Cairo, where he will meet Arab League representatives. On Saturday, Annan visits Damascus to see President Bashar al-Assad as part of a mission “to seek an urgent end to all violence and human rights violations, and to initiate the effort to promote a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.” Traveling to Egypt and Syria are surely necessary, but will soon prove to be insufficient.The key to ending the bloodshed rests more in Moscow than in Damascus as I suggested in early February.

Russia provides Assad the critical support that allows the Syrian dictator to survive. Russia has protected Assad diplomatically twice so far, vetoing UN Security Council resolutions critical of Assad. More importantly, Russia provides the Assad regime the arms that it uses to kill Syrians and destroy their towns. According to the Moscow defense think tank CAST, Russia sold Syria nearly $1 billion worth of weapons in 2011, with some $4 billion remaining in outstanding contracts. The former chief auditor for Syria’s defense ministry, who defected in January, claims that Russia has stepped up its arms supplies to Damascus since the unrest in Syria broke out. Russian arms manufacturers have reportedly increased production to meet the Syrian demand.Yet the Russians appear increasingly uncomfortable with how their support for the brutal Syrian regime is positioning them internationally and isolating them from the Arab world. Last month, Saudi king Abdullah publicly chastised Russia for exercising its veto at the Security Council and for failing to coordinate with the Arabs. Russo-American ties have strained over Syria as well, with Secretary of State Clinton calling Moscow’s UN votes “just despicable.” FULL POST

Editor's Note: The following is reprinted with the permission of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The UN General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution (Guardian) calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Russia and China–both of which vetoed a Security Council resolution last week–voted against the measure, which was put forward by the Arab League. The resolution also called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a special envoy to Syria. In the wake of the UN vote, Syrian troops continued a nearly two-week crackdown (BBC) on anti-government protesters and opposition forces in the central city of Homs.

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Editor's Note: Joel Wuthnow is a Fellow in the China and the World Program in the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He is completing a book manuscript on China's diplomacy at the U.N. Security Council. 

By Joel Wuthnow, The Diplomat

China’s veto of a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria was important not only for the outcome it produced, which was a failure of the Council to address escalating violence in that country. It also reflected a diminished willingness by Beijing to heed international opinion as it makes decisions in the world body. This should be a focus of concern as China’s next president, Xi Jinping, is visiting the U.S., and in continued interactions between Washington and Beijing.

As Minxin Pei has pointed out, two factors led to China’s veto. First is a growing strategic alignment between China and Russia, in which the two coordinate positions in the Council so that neither will be isolated, thus forming an “axis of obstruction” vis-à-vis the West. Second is a wariness about fomenting democratic protests, which Beijing fears may embolden anti-government actors within its own borders. The experience of the Arab Spring lies behind, and buttresses, both of these factors. FULL POST

Editor's Note: The following is reprinted with the permission of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly is expected to consider a non-binding resolution that would back an Arab League plan calling for Assad to hand over power to his vice president, paving the way for the formation of a unity government. The Arab League has also called for a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping mission to Syria. Russia, which vetoed the Security Council measure along with China earlier this month, said it could not support a peacekeeping mission until all sides in Syria cease the violence.

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Editor’s Note: Salman Shaikh is the Director of the Brookings Doha Center and Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute. Shaikh previously served at the United Nations.

By Salman Shaikh – Special to CNN

The shock of Russia and China’s joint veto of a watered down United Nations resolution seeking to halt the violence in Syria and start a political transition has left many asking what to do next. Failure to produce consensus around the latest Arab League – despite weeks of intense diplomatic efforts – seemed to have firmly closed all diplomatic routes. Many Arab and Western states concluded that Russia and China had not acted in good faith.

However, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov traveling to Syria and endorsing the Arab League’s initial Plan of Action of November 2, 2011, the international community must seize the opportunity to enforce that initiative through the United Nations.

The most urgent question remains: What can be done to bring an end to violence? Bashar al-Assad’s forces have continued to intensify their assaults on key battleground cities, particularly Homs where more than 400 people have reportedly been killed since last Friday. FULL POST

Editor's Note: Stewart Patrick is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Program on International Institutions and Global Governance at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security. He writes the blog The Internationalist on CFR.org where this was originally published.

By Stewart M. Patrick, CFR.org

On Saturday, Russia and China cast a double veto of a UN Security Council resolution backing an Arab League peace plan for an orderly departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria, and the creation of a transitional government in that country. This was the fourth time since 2007 that the duo has vetoed resolutions criticizing brutal crackdowns in Myanmar (2007), Zimbabwe (2008), and Syria (2011, 2012).

The proposal sought to end eleven bloody months in Syria, which now threatens to spiral into a civil, and potentially regional, conflict. The veto came on the heels of a brutal massacre by the Syrian government in the town of Homs, where reports suggest that scores of people have died—and on the thirtieth anniversary of the Hama massacre in which ten thousand Syrians perished at the hands of Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad. FULL POST

Editor's Note: The following is reprinted with the permission of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Syrian military stepped up its campaign against anti-government protesters and opposition fighters in the city of Homson Sunday, killing at least fifty people, activists and witnesses said. The flare-up in violence came a day after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over an eleven-month crackdown that has seen approximately 6,000 people killed. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called the veto a "moral stain" on the UN (al-Jazeera), and saidEurope would press forward with new sanctions while helping the Syrian opposition "structure and organize itself." FULL POST