The opportunity to watch Washington graybeards at the Council on Foreign Relations jump over each other to take cell phone photos of George Clooney provided reason enough to attend Tuesday’s event on Sudan. But the discussion with Clooney and Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast offered little reason for enthusiasm regarding the international community’s ability to peacefully resolve the issues surrounding the January 2011 self-determination referendum and the eventual independence of the South.

It is not that Clooney and Prendergast’s work on the issue deserves criticism.  Sudan is perhaps the only issue on which the Hollywood left is in agreement with the political right and Evangelical Christians, and Clooney demonstrated a more intelligent grasp of the situation than Obama’s special envoy Scott Gration has in the past.  Still, the pair’s report on their recent visit to Sudan and proposed solutions—or lack thereof—indicate daunting challenges ahead.