So who is to act if not the United States? Who will enforce the “red line” on chemical weapons? One can dream about the revival of the United Nations or about a new international organization to displace it, but that prospect is decades away. If the United States cannot act—or if it can’t mount a credible threat in lieu of acting—then the world as it now exists is unlikely to coalesce into a new international order. More likely it will descend into a Hobbesian chaos. That’s the kind of large risk that ultimately lurks beneath Obama’s bold move to ask for Congressional authorization for a military strike against Syria.
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