There are historical examples of major crises that have led to massive losses of confidence in the U.N. The failure of peacekeepers to save civilians in Somalia, Rwanda and the Balkans in the 1990s almost spelled the end of blue-helmet operations. The Iraq crisis in 2003 left U.N. officials and diplomats dazed and disoriented.
It took the institution some painful years to recover from both episodes. U.N. officials and friendly diplomats crafted reform programs to get multilateralism back on track. It is possible that the U.N. is now on the cusp of a jolting crisis in the Middle East that could create a decisive breakdown in New York.
Over the past week, the danger of the Syrian war morphing into an all-out Middle East conflict has spiked.
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