Professor Jennifer Welsh on the Syrian crisis and the relationship between regional and global organizations

Jennifer Welsh has written an opinion piece in The Mark News (Canada, 5 January) on the evolving nature of the relationship between regional and global organizations in resolving armed conflict.

She uses the monitoring mission of the Arab League in Syria, which she suggests is facing a legitimacy crisis, as an example.

She goes on to say that although there are a number of reasons why the UN Security Council has not yet authorized coercive measures to prevent further atrocities; a growing political reason is the perception that regional organizations ought to take the lead in any global action as intended in Chapter VIII of the original UN Charter.

However, Jennifer sees a capacity problem. She writes that it may be fine for the UN Security Council to call upon players in the region to act first, as it did when it asked the African Union to take the lead in the crisis in Darfur in 2004-5. But what happens when such organizations do not have the resources (financial or human) to do so? In this instance, deferring to regional organizations risks looking like avoiding responsibility rather than delegating it.

The full article can be read here.