China and Russia have cast three vetoes so far on draft U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions aimed at tougher international responses to the Syrian's government's brutal crackdown on protestors and rebels.
They have drawn much flak for their obstructionist resistance to United Nations efforts to force an end to mass killings in Syria. Yet, as with every great power, their positions reflect a mix of principled, commercial and geopolitical calculations. For the stark reality is that the debate over what to do in Syria is as much about relations with Iran, China, Russia and the Sunni-Shiite sectarian competition as it is about human rights, democracy and disorder in Syria.
The human rights norm has grown so powerful that those who would violate it in the privacy of their torture chambers are compelled to swear fealty to it in global public discourse. But how can outsiders step in to repair grave breaches and protect people from a brutal regime's atrocities?