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Regionalism-meaning regionalist organizations, regionalist systems, and regionalist doctrinesl-has been a marked feature of international relations in the twentieth century. Regionalist organizations, of varied nature and scope, have proliferated since the Second World War while regionalist doctrines have attempted to describe and explain regionalism, assess its promises, and project its prospects. REGIONALISM: ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURYIt may be helpful to inquire why regionalism has been so marked a feature of our times. International relations of the earlier centuries of modern history were largely dominated by the Euro-centric state system: a few great European states, with huge colonial appendages, competed and struggled for power, prestige, and survival. The colonial appendages, covering the bulk of the globe, were not sovereign; and the exercise of sovereignty in setting up a co-operative association is an indispensable common feature of any regional organization. As a result, the possibility of creating regional associations was almost entirely confined to the small continent of Europe.2 Here such associations, in the form of alliance groupings, did arise from time to time; such groupings continue to constitute a feature of modern regionalism. These today are, however, only one of several extant kinds of regionalist organization. Besides, it is doubtful if 1 See the next section of this article for detailed delineations of these terms. Initially it may be helpful to indicate what in this article is broadly connoted by "regionalism". The academic rationale for the selection of this connotation is also treated in the next section.2 The Monroe Doctrine of the United States vis-a-vis Latin America may have been a regionalist doctrine (in a physical sense), but it had little similarity to presentday regionalist doctrines.

This chapter focuses on the United Nations's intervention in Syria since early 2011, with particular emphasis on its efforts to address the civil war's international security dimensions, to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the civilian population, and to create a political framework for conflict resolution. It first considers how local and external forces have generated cyclical dynamics within Syria that not only have compromised each prong of the organization's work but also have led to increasingly disastrous results. It then discusses the UN's approach to Syria through the Security Council, along with the work of the organization's humanitarian agencies. It also describes the repeated failure of peace and humanitarian efforts in Syria, emphasizing the multiple forms of foreign intervention currently at play in the country and the extent to which such intervention—working to prolong the military character of the conflict—is fundamentally divorced from and at odds with UN initiatives.