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10.03.2004

the new age—changing international law, the globalisation of international law

Now primitive savages can be armed with long-distance spears tipped by nuclear bombs, war is no longer a local tribal sport.

Nuclear weapons changed the world at Hiroshima, 6th August, 1945. Humans are only starting to come to tems with that change.

For the first time in history, the leaders are in as much danger as the foot soldiers. This changes fundamentally the leaders’ calculations with regard to ‘war’. The situation was rapidly enhanced or aggravated, according to your point of view, by the development of long-range rocketry. Of course, it is still possible to shift a nuclear bomb in a container on a freighter, or use aircraft or submarines, but a rocket can reach anywhere – virtually without warning.

From the UK prime minister’s office, given as a speech by Blair on 5th March 2004:

“Already, before September 11th the world's view of the justification of military action had been changing. The only clear case in international relations for armed intervention had been self-defence, response to aggression. But the notion of intervening on humanitarian grounds had been gaining currency.”
—
“So, for me, before September 11th, I was already reaching for a different philosophy in international relations from a traditional one that has held sway since the treaty of Westphalia in 1648; namely that a country's internal affairs are for it and you don't interfere unless it threatens you, or breaches a treaty, or triggers an obligation of alliance.”

abelard:
This idea of non-interference was in service of the nation stat, long before the notion of war to right a great wrong was standard theology. The idea has never been ethical, and it has never been fully observed.

Now, rightly, it is in the process of being modified. For further background, see the just war. If ever the imperative ‘to right a great wrong’ was applicable, it was over the hell-hole developed by Madsam Whosane and his criminal socialist gang.

“We know now, if we didn't before, that our own self interest is ultimately bound up with the fate of other nations. The doctrine of international community is no longer a vision of idealism. It is a practical recognition that just as within a country, citizens who are free, well educated and prosperous tend to be responsible, to feel solidarity with a society in which they have a stake; so do nations that are free, democratic and benefiting from economic progress, tend to be stable and solid partners in the advance of humankind. The best defence of our security lies in the spread of our values.”
—
That is why our duty is to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan as stable and democratic nations.”

The arguments go far beyond ‘global terror’, and they are essentially sound. Blair may be pretending to respect his opponents, while making it clear that they are naïve idiots, but a prime minister is not quite in a position to call opponents ‘miserable dorks’ in public. It also does not go down well with good old British hypocrisy posing as ‘politeness’.

That he does not shrink from saying that if (any claim) the invasion was unlawful then it is time the laws are changed is good, for that is the way things are. Any supposed ‘law’ that anyone may imagine exists, or wishes to exist, that protects the likes of Madsam is simply nuts.

When something requires changing/updating, then let’s get to it.

To guard against a suggestion that any member of the United Nations might invade its neighbour, claiming that the reason is to remove a repressive regime, detailed criteria will have to be laid out.

Those who cannot understand the differences – between the legitimacy of a western democracy and a criminal gang of socialists under Madsam hijacking a region and its people – have more than a single screw loose.

Madsam had no more legitimacy than a bank robber holding hostages.

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© abelard, 2003, 10 march


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