It would be easy to label the Democratic Republic of the Congo an irredeemable mess. For almost two decades, the country has been roiled by a series of wars involving neighboring countries and dozens of Congolese militias.

President Barack Obama gave these remarks on August 28, 2013, at the Lincoln Memorial, marking the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the first March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Julia Sweig argues that, while skepticism of military intervention is reasonable in normal times, the use of chemical weapons in Syria has changed the goalposts and demands action from the world. In spite of its painful memories of U.S. intervention in its own recent history, Latin America should invoke the doctrine of Responsibility while Protecting, and partner with Western leaders as a source of humanitarian aid and refugee assistance.

"Refugee camps are born of emergency and evolve into cities of dependency, bureaucracy, and static suffering. They rescue human beings, and then they warehouse them. They relieve the host country of the financial burden and diffuse it among the member states of the United Nations."

In light of chemical weapons attacks in Syria, Stewart Patrick explains why holding the line on their further use is essential to preserving the prohibition regime.

Washington should temper its push for democracy in Egypt and the wider Mideast, focusing more on helping transitional states govern responsibly and peaceably, says CFR's Charles Kupchan.

If "democracy" is achieved when governments rule by consent through free and fair elections, then some of the world's largest Muslim nations are democratic: Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Turkey. In the Arab world, experiments to achieve democratic governance are underway in Iraq, Lebanon, and Tunisia, and are beginning in earnest in Egypt. Arguably, Pakistan has just witnessed its first democratic transition of power.

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"Whether out of reticence, ambivalence, tactical calculation or the difficulty of making policy in Washington, the [Obama] administration's response to the human rights violators it has faced in five years in office has been mealy-mouthed and confusing," writes Jonathan Tepperman.

Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Robert M. Danin, a former senior State Department and National Security Council official with more than twenty years of Middle East experience, discussed progress during peace talks between Israel and Palestine on a media conference call.

The Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) prepared this mid-year report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Afghanistan, which covers the period of January 1 to June 30, 2013, and is mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2096 (2013), which "recognizes the importance of ongoing monitoring and reporting to the United Nations Security Council on the situation of civilians in Afghanistan's armed conflict and in particular on civilian casualties."

Robert Danin discusses upcoming peace talks between Israel and Palestine.

Jerome A. Cohen assesses China's recent criminal proceedings and observes a lack of de facto progress.

Following President Barack Obama's remarks on the Trayvon Martin case, Micah Zenko highlights the inconsistency in Obama's policies towards justice. Although the president has stated in reference to the case that it is wrong to profile individuals based on their "appearance, associations, or statistical propensity to violence," and the use of lethal force cannot be justified as self-defense unless there is reasonable grounds to fear imminent harm, those are the exact foundational principles of U.S. signature strikes.

U.S. policy of isolating Gaza is counterproductive and inadvertently helps entrench the terrorist group Hamas' control. The Obama administration should instead encourage trade and contacts between the West Bank and Gazan people to reestablish national institutions and elections, thereby empowering Palestinian partners for peace.

Egypt faces a cycle of instability, writes Joshua Kurlantzick, but it can break that rotation if it manages expectations in the early years of emerging democracy and takes lessons from Nelson Mandela's post-apartheid South Africa and Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva's Brazil.

Micah Zenko examines past examples of U.S. military interventions to inform action in Syria.

Mark Lagon discusses the State Department's newly released annual Trafficking in Persons Report.

Both tyranny and anarchy are bad political options for a country. The political theorist Thomas Hobbes, looking at the ravages of anarchy during England's civil war in the 17th century, famously concluded that life without government was terrible because "there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; … no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, [is] solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."

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The international community should refrain from sanctioning Egypt's military leaders for ousting President Morsi and instead support a timely political transition, says Richard N. Haass.