The Rio+20 summit, intended to develop a global sustainable development agenda, concluded last week.   In the words of author Gwynne Dyer, "rarely has such a large elephant laboured so long to give birth to such a small mouse."  150 world leaders were unwilling and incapable of creating substantive reforms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because of a lack of political will and competing economic interests.  The United Nations, the G-8, G-20, and other major multinational conferences suffer from many of the same ills.  This begs the question, what is the alternative?

Nonetheless, the past few months were busy for the world's major international institutions.  The International Criminal Court, which is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary, convicted Thomas Lubanga in March marking a major milestone for the international justice community.  However, others have not been so successful.  The United Nations is struggling to resolve the fifteen-month long crisis in Syria that has killed more than 10,000 people.   The most recent G-20 summit also recently concluded in Mexico producing piecemeal economic recovery efforts and meaningless statements about violence in Syria.