The only thing to lament about the agreement reached by Iran and the P5+1 (the UN Security Council's five permanent members – China, Britain, France, Russia, and the United States – plus Germany) in Vienna this month is that it was not signed and sealed a decade ago.
The central, painful reality that the US must accept is that a major shift in the Asia-Pacific balance of power has already taken place. The days of America's unequivocal primacy and unilateral capacity to write the rules are over.
Back in 2001, France floated a proposal that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P5) should voluntarily refrain from using their veto power when dealing with mass-atrocity crimes.
The only thing to lament about the agreement reached by Iran and the P5+1 (the UN Security Council's five permanent members – China, Britain, France, Russia, and the United States – plus Germany) in Vienna this month is that it was not signed and sealed a decade ago.
The central, painful reality that the US must accept is that a major shift in the Asia-Pacific balance of power has already taken place. The days of America's unequivocal primacy and unilateral capacity to write the rules are over.
Back in 2001, France floated a proposal that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P5) should voluntarily refrain from using their veto power when dealing with mass-atrocity crimes.
