If the council's workings sound arcane, that is because its birth pangs were long.

ECONOMIST: The UN and human rights

Obama naively saw in the Arab Spring the birth pangs of liberal democracy in the Middle East.

FORBES: Appease, Surrender, Abandon, and Get Nothing: Obama's NaivePolitik

Spotting the earliest birth pangs of a planet is notoriously hard.

WSJ: Possible New Planet Spotted Under Formation

There is no law of nature that says societies must go through long-lasting statist pangs before giving birth to a free state.

FORBES: Private Currency Competition Is The Monetary Answer