“These are extraordinary times, with extraordinary opportunities,” President Barack Obama told the United Nations on Tuesday as part of the opening proceedings of the 68th session of the UN General Assembly. In his 50-minute address, President Obama focused on the Middle East, a region of the world that has been at the center of U.S. foreign policy in recent months. He urged the UN Security Council to pass a resolution addressing Syria’s use of chemical weapons, stating: “If we cannot agree even on this, then it will show that the United Nations is incapable of enforcing the most basic of international laws. …

The United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (LOS), the regime governing international water rights and management of maritime resources, has been a controversial subject in the United States for more than 30 years and spanning five presidencies. This summer, it has once again garnered headlines, as competing political factions in the U.S. Senate lock horns over a possible ratification vote. We focus on the details of the convention, and the key arguments for and against it, in the September issue of International Debates. When international negotiations for the LOS Convention were completed in 1982, President Ronald Reagan refused to…

On Saturday, China and Russia vetoed a proposed UN Security Council resolution backed by the League of Arab Nations that would have imposed further sanctions on Syria and called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. The two permanent members of the Council were the only two no votes versus 13 yes votes, but only one permanent member has to vote against a resolution for it to fail. Despite attempts by backers of the resolution to win Russian and Chinese support, ambassadors for the two nations said that they considered the proposal too one-sided against the Syrian regime and…