Mr. Kofi Annan, the distinguished diplomat, has resigned as peace envoy to Syria. Upon leaving, he issued a blistering broadside that blamed divisions among the permanent five members of the United Nations Security Council as much as the combatants in that troubled country for the sad state of affairs. Mr. Annan's departure is another reminder of the limits of international institutions in the quest to secure peace and the basic divide between governments about how the world should be governed.

Mr. Annan took up the job as U.N.-Arab League special envoy in February. It was a mission many would have refused, seemingly destined to fail. Yet for the man whose life was spent as a U.N. diplomat — he joined the World Health Organization in 1962 and his career ended after serving as U.N. secretary general from 1997 to 2006 — the call was irresistible.

Mr. Annan developed a six-point peace plan to resolve the Syrian crisis, including a ceasefire that was supposed to take effect in mid-April. Hundreds of U.N. monitors were dispatched to the country, but the ceasefire was never implemented.