Russia and China’s dual veto on a UN resolution condemning recent violence in Syria shocked and appalled audiences throughout the Western world. Yet the logic underpinning this veto could be more nuanced than we think.

The Middle East’s despots and the push for democracy synonymous with the Arab Spring make curious bedfellows.  And yet, as an Arab League delegation presses the United Nations to support the league’s latest roadmap to peace in Syria, all overt signs suggest that the Arab world’s most ardently anti-democratic leaders have re-cast themselves as champions of Western-style liberal democracy, at least in appearance. 

Three massive bombings in quick succession would generally be cause for concern for a national leader. Paradoxically, for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, they’re a sign that things are looking up.

Did Egypt’s revolution even succeed, or was everyone a little too eager to accept the comfortable story book ending of a media narrative?