Amy Myers Jaffe Examines Meaning of Syria Crisis

Amy Myers Jaffe's new post at Fuel Fix looks at the ongoing crisis in Syria and draws some larger meaning from it. Looking at Syria in the context of the Cold War, Arab nationalism and U.S. political issues, Jaffe writes,

What is needed is the social and political will to enforce cease fires based on political negotiations and peace-keeping systems until rule of law can take hold. A good first start would be increased commentary (and social pressure) ending the societal glorification of “freedom fighting.” That goes for both citizens of the Middle East and those who are clinging to their guns here in the United States. Either we trust and believe in rule of law or we are all doomed to the same fate as Syria. In Boston, citizens did not use their personal guns to protect themselves or try to capture the Boston Marathon perpetrators and kill them. The entire society stayed at home to allow those actually elected and charged with that responsibility to do their jobs under the continuing scrutiny of a free press and a functioning judicial system. There is a lesson in that not only for those who would send off a car bomb to kill innocent people to a political end in an Iraq or Syria but also for all Americans.

Jaffe is a leading expert on global energy policy, geopolitical risk, and energy and sustainability. Jaffe serves as executive director for energy and sustainability at University of California, Davis with a joint appointment to the Graduate School of Management and Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS). At ITS-Davis, Jaffe heads the fossil fuel component of Next STEPS (Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways).