But that doesn't mean a multilateral humanitarian intervention to help the survivors of Cyclone Nargis would be justified, in Garton Ash's view.
And then there are the folks at Cato, Reason and other libertarian outlets, who worry that Obama's unilateral decision to engage in a successful multilateral intervention will leave the door open to even more aggressive and bloody forays by future presidents, who might not be so willing to check their own power.
"Unilateral intervention," they say, "is simply prohibited by international law," whereas "multilateral intervention can be legally sanctioned, if the level of communal violence is sufficiently great to produce either 'threats to peace' in the surrounding area or a humanitarian catastrophe or both".
In this case, multilateral intervention also poses problems.
But the real test, Ulgen said, will come if there is ever a multilateral intervention in Syria.
This is why multilateral interventions were usually required to facilitate the re-alignments of exchange rates".
PARIS — With French officials saying confidently on Saturday that an advance by Islamist militants on Bamako, Mali's capital, had been halted, France's foreign minister told African leaders that "our African friends need to take the lead" in a multilateral military intervention in Mali.
The US was not keen, but France and the UK, with support from other European countries, showed how multilateral military intervention can work.
The big difference with Syria and Yemen is that Libyans overwhelmingly favored our multilateral military intervention, while Syrians and Yemenis mostly don't.
US: from multilateral champion to handicapped donor… and back again?
