IF this column were just a little more orthodox, just a little more accepting of the soothing locutions of international relations as practised at our great universities, it would tell you now of the victory for multilateralism embodied in the new UN sanctions against Iran. It would enthuse, in a measured and mellow fashion. about the benefits of international co-operation.
But that would be to wander in the make-believe world in which much diplomacy has its strange half-life. Instead, I'll tell you the truth. These sanctions represent a final, dismaying demonstration of the frivolity of the international system, if you can characterise the ramshackle, dysfunctional and corrupt processes of the UN as a system at all.
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