Comments on: Team America World Police?

By: IJ

IJ — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 20:53:46 +0000

You are correct, Dan, along with the the Peacebuilding Commission and the Millennium goals it is another momentous change recently at the United Nations. However the veto still remains at present.

Incidentally, on the use of vetoes in the UNSC, the position a couple of years ago was:

“That power [veto], diplomats say, can also provide a bully pulpit for rewarding friends and punishing enemies. In the United Nations’ 58-year history, the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, have used the veto 117 times – most coming during Cold War decades. The United States is second with 73. Since 1990, America has cast more Security Council vetoes than any country, many of them favoring Israel, a longtime ally.”

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 18:42:57 +0000

I am familiar with R2P. If it is to be taken seriously, it marks the end of the Westphalian world and a focus on human rights not seen since the Wars of Religion.

By: IJ

IJ — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 15:46:46 +0000

Dan tdaxp,

In September 2005, UN members agreed to set up a mechanism based on the Canadian report: “Responsibility to Protect”. One problem highlighted in the report was the regular use of the UNSC veto by some members to defeat the wishes of the international community, expressed in UN resolutions. It was recommended that the use of the veto should be discouraged – it was undermining global stability. But the details of R2P have still to be clarified.

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 15:13:48 +0000

IJ,

Israel has never had a Chapter VII resolution against it pass. Chapter VI (non-binding) and Chapter VII (binding) resolutions should not be confused, if we wish to keep/make the UNSC as a meaningful institution.

Barnett’s A-Z Rule Set won’t work, anyway.

By: IJ

IJ — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:23:42 +0000

Thomas Barnett stops short of recommending “Team America World Police”, but only marginally.

In the seminar series at John Hopkins University, Barnett says the G20 could be the UN executive to authorise and legitimise the use of Leviathan force. More controversially, though, he suggests the US should be the world’s sole enforcer; his notes tell us: “Leviathan force can’t be stopped but is not brought out until US is committed”.

The inference is that the US will effectively be the world’s policeman, retaining a veto on UN enforcement. In an “After Words” interview, Republican Congressman Tom Feeney appeared sceptical about the scope for bias in this arrangement; Feeney asked Barnett about enforcement against Israel, the subject of many UN resolutions.

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 19:45:07 +0000

China’s Deng Xiaopeng and Zhou Enlai became Communists while studying in France in the 20s. If not the Soviet Union, then perhaps China would have been the first Communist country.

By: Gollios

Gollios — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:38:28 +0000

I’ve got a conterfactual…without WW I, would the Bolsheviks been able to topple the Tsar? Would communism have been strangled in the cradle, or would some other country have tried that horrible experiment?

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 01:31:09 +0000

Chirol,

I largely agree.

If there would not have been world wars, we might have seen a world where the United States and the British Empire together fueled globalization in both the Core and the Gap.

Instead we got the 20th century.

Too bad.

By: Chirol

Chirol — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 20:58:04 +0000

I’m not sure I would say that. World War II was also partially America’s fault because it withdrew quickly from international politics after WWI and refused to help enforce the Versailles treaty allowing Germany to rearm. And once German moved and began recaputring territory, in clear violation of a number of agreements, we still did nothing. While it was indeed primarily Europe’s responsibility, we were not totally innocent in the whole affair.

Besides, the US was destined to become the world leader anyway with the way things were going. This was just the trigger than finally led to it.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 20:50:37 +0000

Shame all the social disruption that America went through, and Senator Vandenberg foresaw, because Europe couldn’t put her house in order.