The United States, Russia, China, France and Britain reached a UN Security Council resolution this week to compel Syria to relinquish its chemical weapons stock after government forces reportedly used sarin gas on civilians in an August 21 strike. Still, international tensions remain high as uncertainty lingers over how the U.S. and Russia, the central brokers of the agreement, will enforce the resolution. Aaron David Miller, vice president for new initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, has been writing and thinking about the Middle East since the late 1970s. The author of four books, Miller has served as an advisor to six Secretaries of State in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. He joined the Washington, D.C.-based Wilson Center in 2006 and talked to Moment editor Nadine Epstein recently about what the diplomatic struggle between...

Continue reading