GEORGETOWN, Guyana - In a recent editorial entitled, ‘Obama, Syria and a world rearranging itself,’ we suggested in focusing on events in the Middle East, that changes were taking place in countries’ perceptions of each other that were inducing the major powers, and specifically the United States, to relook at their relations to each other. Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron, attempting a repeat of his country’s strong advocacy of, and participation in Libya two years ago, found his attempt to mount a similar initiative in relation to Syria stymied by a contrary opinion of his own parliament.
Then, President Obama trying to follow suit, found his Senate taking a stance not dissimilar from Cameron, and giving strong hints that they would not support an American intervention against the Syrian government. And the US has felt constrained to rely on an initiative from President Putin in Russia suggesting the possibility of a diplomatic, rather than a military intervention, to resolve the civil war there.
For some time now, the United States had been minimizing the strength of Russia, and its legitimacy for diplomatic intervention, casting Putin as a kind of autocrat moving Russia in a reverse direction from democratic behaviour acceptable in the Western world. For the US he seems to have been perceived as therefore not having the legitimacy to make initiatives towards the resolution of difficulties in various part of the world.