Fragile tightrope though it might be, the so-called "cessation of hostilities" in Syria was holding this past week, despite a smattering of truce violations. But the eyes of diplomats and other observers were more on the relationship between superpowers Russia and the United States than on the belligerents in the five-year-old Syrian Civil War—clearly a growing misnomer, considering the conflict’s grave international repercussions and implications. With the cessation of hostilities pact reached last month more between regional and global leaders than among the multiple belligerents in the actual war, Moscow and Washington suddenly find themselves having become strange bedfellows—an odd state of affairs after events not only in Syria but also in Ukraine and elsewhere that have had the two nuclear powers at each other’s throats more since 2014 than at any other time since the Cold War era of a quarter-century ago. On first glance, this should be good news. And to a certain...
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Author Roberto Vivo comments on wars past and present, on the world’s great peacemakers and on the pathway to global peace. His basic philosophy: In a world where 9 out of every 10 victims of armed conflict are civilians, war is no longer a viable political alternative. Indeed, it is the ultimate crime against humanity. If rising generations are to have a future, the key will lie in world peace. War is the pathway to oblivion.