Carne Ross

Russia is heading the U.N. Security Council in September. The Takeaway looks at what this means for the international body’s effectiveness in the coming year.

As the Obama Administration lobbies Congress to support an American intervention into the Syrian conflict, the Syrian opposition waits with baited breath. Carne Ross is a former Briti...

As President Obama meets with fellow G-8 leaders in Northern Ireland, Syria’s fate is high on the agenda, but there is little consensus on the best path forward. Former British ambass...

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced his resignation as the UN Special Envoy of Syria yesterday confirming the situation in Syria hopeless and the help from the Security C...

Whether or not you buy into the idea of American exceptionalism, the U.S. constitution is an exceptional document: the way in which it was crafted, how it secured the rights of citizens, and how 94 percent of nations have modeled their own charters after it. But if you ask Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the constitution is exactly that: historically exceptional, but now a tad out of date. In a recent interview in Egypt, she stated: "I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012."

In line with her comments, a new study has found that fewer and fewer nations are modeling their constitutions after ours.

Carne Ross, one of two British diplomats to resign over the 2003 Iraq War, runs a non-profit diplomatic advisory group Independent Diplomat, and is the author of The Leaderless Revolution: How Ordinary People Will Take Power and Change Politics in the 21st Century, calls for direct democracy as a response to globalization. 

Yesterday, we discussed the differences in battle techniques between the NATO-backed uprisings in Libya, and recent U.S. military efforts in the Middle East. Our guest, Gideon Rose, editor for Foreign Affairs magazine and the author of "How Wars End: Why We Always Fight the Last Battle," said that comparisons can be drawn between NATO's efforts in Kosovo, and what has transpired this year in Libya. We decided to look into this further.

The debate continues over how the international community should respond to events in Libya, where Col. Moammar Gadhafi has been killing rebel forces and Libyan civilians. There are, of course, many risks to imposing a no-fly zone, which would a significant military commitment in the region and, already, some high-level military officials have warned against that. But more and more people in Washington and in the Middle East are seeing a distressing scenario in Libya that calls for intervention. Is a no-fly zone the best way to intervene?