The United Nations is an international governing organization that was established in the aftermath of World War II in hopes to prevent such a war from ever occurring again. Since its establishment it has grown significantly and now includes 193 states. Even though the United States, China, France, England, and Russia technically have the greatest say in U.N. policy due to their exclusive veto power, all states are given a chance to address issues during the two week conference held once a year.
This year one of the most brought up and discussed topics was the crisis in Syria. The Syrian crisis began in 2011 when the Syrian government began crackdown on public protests through violent means such as civilian bombings. These acts only helped to fan the flame as more and more Syrians began to rebel against their government. The inner-state struggle for power continued to rage on until this year when an alarming amount of Syrians began to try and flee the country to other states such as Turkey, Jordan, and Germany who surprisingly welcomed many of them with open arms. This large emigration truly brought the Syrian Crisis to the national stage and for a few months it was one of the most broadcast issues on the news.
At the 2015 U.N. meeting Obama called the Syrian ruler Basher al-Assad a "tyrant" and explained how he was willing to work together with other countries, such as Russia, in order to quell this crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin also joined in the conversation and stated that the United Nations must work together to resolve this issue but placed more of an emphasis o working with the Syrian government. Many smaller states including Poland and Denmark exclaimed that they refused to support the migration of Syrians to their countries and that they would be promptly deported upon entrance.
In October of 2015 many members of the U.N. met in Vienna to discuss peace talks in regards to the Syrian Crisis but there is still much work to be done.
So what is your argument here? Do you think those countries are wrong for turning away refugees or is that their right that they should exercise in this situation? The UN can talk about these things, but I also think multilateral talks between the U.S., Russia, the UK, Germany, France, etc. is what's really going to solve things. Without the work of those countries nothing will be accomplished in Syria. Just wondering what you actually think about the UN action/inaction and the same for the different countries you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI have not entirely formed an opinion as to whether or not Syrian refugees should be welcomed into countries that do not want them yet. However, in terms of the U.N. Security Council, you are absolutely correct by saying that nothing will really be accomplished until countries start working together with one another to achieve a common goal, whatever that goal may be.
DeleteAll of the countries you talked about have different approaches to dealing with the Syrian Crisis. Who you agree most with and why? In your opinion, what is the best course of action in dealing with the struggle for power within Syria, as well as the Syrians refugees that are fleeing?
ReplyDeletePersonally I think the best method to dealing with the Syrian crisis would be what you mentioned, which would be for multiple superpowers to concentrate their efforts together to deal with the situation directly. I think that the US and Russia should send in a vast number of troops in order to quell the situation. Even though I think this is the best option, it still would not resolve the situation. There are multiple factions in Syria jousting for power, and even if we were to take out Assad's regime, one of those factions would probably gain power and there would be a new crisis.
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