"Putting aside whether the UN's attitude has been sympathetic enough, whether it should vet peacekeeping forces better before deploying them, and whether the organization has a moral obligation to give Haiti more help with its public health needs, Ban's decision will protect all relief efforts in the future. It is the only outcome that provides the necessary protections to those who are asked to work voluntarily in dangerous situations. Most importantly, it will maintain an incentive for nations to support UN efforts for assistance or peacekeeping missions that have, by any measure, done far more good than harm."

"The ICC represents the proposition that newly free nations should punish their abusive former leaders through court, rather than summary execution. It suggests that a legal reckoning with the past can help countries break free of horrible legacies. Instead of challenging Libya's efforts to do just that, the ICC could have assisted in its investigation and provided the technical advice necessary to help Libya become a nation under rule of law."

"Ideological justifications for intervention sound morally assuring. But because the world is not united in opposition to Assad, because France and most of Europe are not now calling for intervention, because the Arabs are not clamoring for US action, because Russia and China and Iran are sophisticated opponents, because the United Nations has not been able to gain traction, the United States would have to stand alone at the forefront."

"Global public health efforts tend to be be focused on reproductive and family issues. But health programs are very much a part of our security — hard security — apparatus. Even if the Ebola virus never makes it to American shores, a large outbreak in one or two countries in Africa would eventually have ripple effects leading to destabilization of governments, concerns about the global economy, refugee crises, and the end of immigration access to the United States for those in the impacted countries."

"More water, more boats, more cargo, and no one in charge means a lot more danger....The lack of governance has been an issue for some time. The United Nations Law of the Sea Convention was an attempt to establish a framework for ocean management; proposed in 1982, it has the support of over 160 nations, and the last five US presidents. But the Senate has never ratified the treaty based on reactionary concerns about ceding land to Northern Europeans."

"The Jewish community in America is much more diverse in its opinions than AIPAC's vociferous leaders would suggest. The same is true in Israel. Though Netanyahu pounds Obama on his lack of specific plans, the prime minister has hardly been forthcoming about his own. He seems more comfortable asserting Israel's right to strike at Iran than in actually explaining why such a strike would eliminate the long-term threat."

"Nothing gets a nation like ours worked up more than the notion that people will try to desperately get here and seek humanitarian relief. Many Republicans who are seeking to run this nation may not put any stock in climate science, but they believe in immigration controls."

"Iran does not have a nuclear bomb, and nothing in the International Atomic Energy Agency's report released Tuesday brings the world any closer to doomsday. The IAEA report is disturbing; it concluded that Iran had let up on past efforts to build nuclear weapons but, as suspected, has conducted significant work more recently. The report will help build international support for isolating Iran; that is its intent."

"Brazil today can be summed up by the number five: it is the fifth-most populous country in the world, the fifth-largest land mass, and soon to be the fifth-largest economy. Forget geopolitics and Brazil's somewhat puzzling failure to support the Libyan airstrikes. Its all about the money, and Massachusetts is no wilting flower in this regard."

"The case study we do not have is whether a no-fly zone will aid rebel leaders in deposing a tyrannical leader in a predominantly ground combat civil war where the United States has a strong preference for who should lose, but almost no idea who the winners are. This is new territory."