As the hand-wringing over Syria goes on the United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton is not the only leader saying "we cannot sit back and wait any longer".
Yet that is precisely what is happening. The outside world lacks the will to raise the stakes sufficiently to cause the overthrow of President Bashar al Assad. Meanwhile, there is dismay at the loss of life in the conflict, the torture of opponents of the regime, and the plight of thousands of refugees crossing the border to Turkey.
Weapons and money is being provided to the rebels in Syria, but neither the United States nor the European Union has assigned troops or significant hardware to the conflict. Instead NATO members are working through the United Nations Security Council, which brokered a ceasefire earlier this month, but is regarded by observers as generally ineffective.
There are many reasons for NATO members' caution. There is uncertainty regarding the composition of the rebel groups and who they stand for. More significantly, Syria's neighbour, Iran wants al Assad to remain in power and is fast becoming a Middle East hegemon. Meanwhile, Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon simmers to the south.
To explain the Syrian conundrum and assess possible outcomes, we welcomed historian and former diplomat Ross Burns.
Ross Burns was a career officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs for 37 years until his retirement in 2003. In that time he had a range of overseas postings with an emphasis on the Middle East, Africa and Europe. He served as ambassador to Syria and Lebanon (based in Damascus) from 1984 to 1987 and head of the Middle East and Africa Branch in Canberra (1988 to 1991). He was ambassador in Tel Aviv from 2001 to 2003 as well as in South Africa during the transition from apartheid to democracy (1992-95) and in Greece (1998-2001). Since his retirement, Ross retains a keen interest in all aspects of the Middle East, not least its history and archaeology.
Ross is the author of two books on the archaeology of Syria -- Monuments of Syria (1992) and Damascus -- A History (2005). In 2011, Ross completed a PhD at Macquarie University on 'The Origins of the Colonnaded Axes of the Cities of the Near East Under Rome'.
