Whatever happened to the 'rules-based international order'?
The Golden Rule: He who has the gold gets to make the rules.
A ready ability to use the phrase “rules-based international order” seems to have become a job requirement for a top position in the U.S. foreign policy apparatus.” — Foreign Policy
The “rules-based international order” was a strategy employed by the western alliance after WWII to maintain its hegemony, isolate the (then-socialist) Soviet Union, and ensure America’s position as the top dog in a unipolar world.
This RBIO originated in Europe but achieved full expression only with the US’ rise to global leadership (or hegemony), as this country, post-1945, combined power and purpose to forge a new world order, using a mixture of persuasion, incentives, and coercion to do so.
It was predicated on a set of norms and principles about global security, the economy, and governance. Rules like encouraging peaceful, predictable, and cooperative behavior among states consistent with liberal values and principles; formal institutional bodies, such as the UN), the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and NATO, that put authority and power behind these rules, and provided a forum to discuss and settle disputes.
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But 70 years of imperialist wars, the rise of China formerly known as the “poor man of Asia”, into a strong global economic dynamo, and the victory of the independence movements in the third world changed all that. The world today is no longer unipolar. That’s a fact that all the contending world powers will have to accept if the planet is to be saved from nuclear and environmental extinction.
Eternal wars and militarization of the economy have drained the West of its resources and eroded the standing of the US as the supposed “leader of the free world.” More recently, US military and political support for apartheid state Israel has left this country more politically isolated than ever and increased the threat of Trumpism (American-style fascism) at home.
“Rules for thee but not for me.”
“Rules-based order” has become an empty and hypocritical phrase used merely to justify war and legitimize coups and big power plays in weaker countries, from Africa to Latin America.
Recent examples of this international lawlessness include:
The continued shipments of bombs, missiles, and white phosphorus to Israel to be used, along with starvation, against a defenseless civilian population in Palestine.
The State Department reports that Israel’s use of US-supplied weapons against the civilian population “likely violated” international law.
The Biden administration basically admits that its weapons are being used to indiscriminately kill civilians and has already put a hold on one package of arms. in a major policy shift and said the U.S. was reviewing others even as it reiterated
The US threats against the ICC, if it issues warrants for the arrest of war criminals, is in itself a war crime.
In 2018, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2417, which strongly condemns the starving of civilians as a method of warfare, as well as the unlawful denial of humanitarian access depriving civilians of “objects indispensable to their survival”. This includes food and water.
The deadly assault on UN staff in Gaza along with the blocking of food and causing a famine in Gaza along with the US withdrawing funding for UNRWA are war crimes.