The Long Game by Derek Chollet

Author:Derek Chollet
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781610396615
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2016-05-07T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

THE TIDE OF WAR

No issue has tested the Long Game more than Syria. Nor has any foreign policy dilemma proved more vexing or demoralizing for those of us who played a role in shaping and implementing it.

What started in 2011 as another Arab Spring ember ignited into a regional inferno. In her memoirs, Hillary Clinton accurately described Syria as a “wicked problem”: it defied easy solutions, and all the choices were bad. “Do nothing, and a humanitarian disaster envelops the region,” she wrote. “Intervene militarily, and risk opening Pandora’s Box and wading into another quagmire, like Iraq. Send aid to the rebels, and watch it end up in the hands of extremists. Continue with diplomacy, and watch it run headfirst into a Russian veto. None of these approaches offered much hope of success.”1 And over time, the choices only became worse.

Looking back on the course of the Syria crisis, it is tempting to see this only as a story of lost opportunities, serial missteps, and inept decision-making. The outcomes have been truly horrific—with more than 300,000 killed, millions of refugees, the rise of the Islamic State, and a disintegration of regional order that the world will be grappling with for at least a generation. This might seem to be a clear failure of American policy. But when one weighs the possibilities for greater US action alongside competing goals, and the demands of managing trade-offs and risks, it is more accurately a cautionary tale of the limits to American, or anyone else’s, power.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.