summer of a small child pulled from the
rubble of a fallen apartment building in
Aleppo Syria her face and body dirty
with debris and her eyes deeply in pain
images like this one are all too common
and each one of us find them so
profoundly disturbing and were
overwhelmed that there’s a brutal war
affecting millions as we live our daily
lives and we find ourselves potentially
becoming numb to these images one by one
but I could not ignore this image of
this child with her sweet face her long
dark flashes and her deep brown eyes
because she reminded me so much of my
own little boy Elliot about the same age
her name is aya first I found myself
struck selfishly by the situation and
thought that could be my child and my
heart broke for the deep humanity and
suffering that might have been felt by
her family then as my heart awoke to a
larger view of this whole problem I
found myself struck by a deeper humanity
this is everyone’s child aya is
everyone’s child now that’s not to say
that I had not been following the Syrian
civil war as a professor in
international affairs I regularly
lecture on current events in the
international system and I had lectured
on the Syrian civil war dozens of times
each time I would begin with a map of
the Middle East and I would explain
that the middle-east come is comprised
of 15 countries all on or around the
Arabian Peninsula and I would then point
out Syria just north of the Arabian
Peninsula
and I would explain that this is the
country that’s filled with internal
conflict and that there are other
countries around it that also have
internal conflicts such as Israel and
Iraq and I would explain that the Syrian
civil war actually started out with a
peaceful protest as part of the larger
Arab Spring in 2011 thousands of Syrians
took to the streets calling demanding
their dictator for greater
representation in their government in
response Assad the leader in Syria
responded to these protests with violent
suppression pretty soon these protesters
took up weapons became an insurgent
group loosely called the Free Syrian
Army and a civil war ensued this Civil
War has been lasting for seven years and
it’s seemingly intractable for three
reasons in addition to the two sides
I’ve just described there are still
other actors in this conflict first we
have non-state actors the Kurds and
ethnic group in the Northeast that’s
attempting to struggle to gain territory
for themselves that might one day become
their own country and ISIL an extremist
group that’s using the chaos of war in
an attempt to gain more power and
territory for themselves in addition to
this this conflict is also along
sectarian lines of Islam the Iranian
government Shia government supports the
Assad regime whereas other governments
within the Middle East sunni-led such as
Turkey and Saudi Arabia support the
insurgents and still finally there are
also global actors that are playing a
role in this
conflict the US and Russia have both
historically been involved on opposite
sides as a result these actors are so
embattled
and this conflict has created an
unprecedented power vacuum so much so
that we have a divided Syria that looks
like this I had taught many times about
this but what I hadn’t done was actually
considered the other actors the human
actors like ayah on the ground in a
conflict not of their choosing at the
political level you think only about the
strategies of the militarily powerful
but when I started to turn my attention
to the human level
I found an unfortunately profound amount
of suffering
I also found a pretty silent
international community but upon
reflection I found many areas in which
you and I can take potential actions to
help alleviate some of this pain so as a
scholar of international relations in
international relations I study food
insecurity specifically I study how
political leaders address food
insecurity in their own countries now
food insecurity exists when people do
not have the nutritional requirements
they need to sustain their lives and to
taking this new very personal profound
connection to the Syrian civil war and
my scholarly focus I turned my attention
to a rather disturbing and dramatic
issue going on within the civil war that
is that the government of Syria and
their ally Russia are strategically
targeting bakeries that are meant to
feed civilians now why bakeries you
might ask well it’s important to
understand that in Syria bread is
central to cultural life and it’s and
it’s served in almost every meal
oftentimes for example tellingly in the
Middle East
one of the words for bread iishe is also
a word for life and often times before
the war if you were to go into a bazaar
in Syria you would find the most crowded
place would be the bakery even since the
war began you find that there are bread
lines that form all around the block
people wait for hours if not days to try
to get bread unfortunately then it is a
strategically attractive target for
those attempting to both kill civilians
that are sympathetic to the insurgents
as well as to break the morale of the
insurgents through prolonged starvation
of their friends and their families it’s
estimated that since this war has begun
at least one in six bakeries have been
destroyed in the rebel-held areas by
Russian and Syrian airstrikes oftentimes
these bakeries were able to feed tens of
thousands of people on a weekly basis
and it’s often reported by human rights
groups that are in Syria that when there
is a bombing of a bakery most often it
is the only target on a military run
supporting the claim that indeed this is
an intentional targeting of civilian
food supplies some of these bakeries are
run by Syrians but others that have been
targeted have been run by international
nonprofits all or all of whom are simply
trying to feed civilians as I speak to
you now it is estimated that nearly half
a million people are believed to be
starving in Syria last year UN officials
going to Syria reported back that they
saw elderly and children men and women
with little more than skin and bones
desperate for the slightest morsel and
former Secretary General of the United
Nations Ban ki-moon attempted to bring
attention to the starvation in sea
area and the director taps when he said
let me be clear the use of starvation as
a weapon of war is a war crime for me
the abject horror of this war is that
the international community is doing
relatively little to try to stop it
we have important laws internationally
recognized that are supposed to protect
civilians from this fate the Geneva
Conventions are our document signed by
every country in the world and they
specifically prohibit the targeting of
civilians within war and the Fourth
Geneva Conventions specifically
prohibits the targeting of civilian food
supply as well as numerous other
treaties that say the same however it’s
the case that in this in this war there
really has been war crimes by Russia and
Syria that have largely gone unchecked
how is it that if we have the laws that
exist these leaders are not held
accountable before the International
Criminal Court well the ultimate
difficulty with international law is
whereas it’s foundational for peace and
order in our system in its current form
it’s very difficult to enforce as I
described to my students internet the
international system feels a lot
sometimes like a classroom filled with
small children and no teacher to be
found in this situation the rules of the
game the international law can look a
little bit like the rules written on a
whiteboard the only difference is the
teachers didn’t write the rules there is
no teacher instead the rules were
somehow agreed upon by all of the
children in the room the problem with
this as you may imagine is when there’s
no teacher in the room to enforce the
rules then every day each child decides
for his or herself whether or not
they’re actually going to follow these
rulz think of then Russia and Syria as
those children who have absolutely
decided to break the rules and in doing
so have harmed other children in this
room as a result you ask yourself what
are others to do right and why how in
the world do they get away with this
well unfortunately Russia is a permanent
member on the UN Security Council now if
we’re going with the analogy of the
classroom then imagine a group of the
biggest beefiest toddlers in the room
all of them get to sit at one table and
they get to ultimately decide whether
the rules are going to be followed and
if they’re broken whether or not
somebody will get punished
unsurprisingly Russia gets to sit at
this table and ultimately has decided
that neither they nor Syria will be a
held accountable for breaking their
rules as a result we have to ask
ourselves what are the other children in
the classroom to do okay if we choose to
ignore the fact that some kids are
breaking the rules then ultimately
international law may be dismantled it
may not actually work if we really
honestly do not believe in it and do not
hold them accountable then international
law no longer functions fortunately I
believe that with millions of caring of
hearing people in the world we can work
to actually preserve the common rules
that we all have created and that we all
hold as valuable as we sit here however
far removed from the conflict as other
people are fighting for their very
survival it may seem difficult to
imagine what role we can play I see our
responsibility in two ways more
fundamentally I see that we have the
power to be responsible and more and
more responsibility to actually address
that power
and I see ourselves as both global
citizens and reminding ourselves that we
are citizens of the most powerful nation
on earth
so as global citizens I see that there
are three things that you and I can do
first I strongly encourage you to stay
informed of the international realm
students take a class in international
relations we’d be happy to have you and
I promise whereas before I definitely
focused on the political and military
powerful in conflicts I also will commit
to you that I will bring in the human
that is in the war or in a situation not
of their choosing students and
non-students alike I encourage you all
to stay informed by subscribing to and
paying for media that provides
international stories that are
rigorously researched and finally as
global citizens something you can do is
provide bread to the Syrian civilians
there is one organization that does an
excellent job named Mercy Corps it’s an
American organization traditionally
funded by the US State Department that
originally worked on the ground in Syria
providing flour to the bakeries that I
just spoke about well after several
years of struggling to do this
the Syrian government expelled the Mercy
Corps from its borders Mercy Corps
rather than giving up moved to turkey
and kept supplying flour to the Syrian
conflict to those bakeries in need until
just two weeks ago when turkey also
expelled Mercy Corps from its borders
many believe it’s because Mercy Corps is
committed to provide bread for all those
in need rather than just to those whom
turkey is loyal to as a result as this
organization is desperately looking for
a new location it could use your help
your contribution and as members of the
most powerful nation on earth
it’s important to remember that our
strong democracy can work for others
favor in others favor call your
lawmakers first explain to them that the
current administration’s preliminary
plan would reduce the state department’s
budget by 37 percent this would
drastically decrease the state
department’s ability to provide
humanitarian assistance all around the
world including to Mercy Corps
organizations providing help on the
ground right now in Syria please
consider voicing your opposition to such
extreme cuts second also encourage them
to consider a diplomatic approach to
this war that would have lasting
humanitarian relief and third more
broadly please remind them that the
American values that they and we hold so
dearly have a place in the international
order of the future we are absolutely
the America that the world believes in
when we help to alleviate the deep
suffering and starvation of others yes
the one of the greatest threats I
believe to the international system is
that a few powerful states can
potentially dismantle peace and order
but I also believe that the passion of
the vigilant masses like us to work to
uphold international law and the values
that undergird it will bring peace and
and ease the suffering in Syria and around the world thank