3 ms·
International law is a thing now, but it won't be respected until there are teeth behind it. And there won't be teeth behind it until there is actually a functi
by kyllo 14y ago
International law is a thing now, but it won't be respected until there are teeth behind it. And there won't be teeth behind it until there is actually a functioning world government with military and police power. Most currently powerful countries are too self-interested and enjoy their freedom and autonomy too much to actually want such a thing to exist. The UN is an attempt at it, but it is not powerful enough because the powerful member states undermine its authority by vetoing everything that goes against their individual interests. So it gets used as a mere tool for powerful countries to police weak countries' internal and neighborly disputes.
- lmickh 14y agoThe UN fails at it because that is not what it is designed to do. It is supposed to be an organization to drive international cooperation. Any attempt or hope to make the UN anything else is a waste of time. It is not a government body with its own legitimacy. It never will be without radical reform.
- kyllo 14y agoFair enough; then the point stands that declaring an action "illegal" under international law is meaningless because no party has a legitimate mandate to enforce international law.
- jbooth 14y agoThe UN's doing exactly what it was designed to do, to be a talking shop for great powers in order to make WWIII less likely. It was never designed to be a world government or anything close to the sort.
- gadders 14y agoAnd the fact that the UN has no moral authority either.