“In the spirit of the law, there is an aim of protecting weak states and individuals from the arbitrary and tyrannical practices of powerful states and individuals, but we see that the law as in the case of World War II could not say ‘stop” to the eradication of a country’s past and future,” said writer Mehmet Akif Aslu in his story ‘Nuclear War Will Stem from Ineffective Law.’
This story tackles the subject of international law, or the way states interact with each other. “The law, in the simplest definition, is a set of rules regulating the relationship between people and states,” said Aslu. Aslu said that the tensions of World War II allowed the US to use the atomic bomb on Japan. While the law is important, Aslu needs to take account the law-breaking ways of the Axis powers and the fact that an invasion of Japan, necessary to stop fascism if no nuclear weapons had been used, would have costs more lives on both sides. However, the world has lived with nuclear weapons since then, and this is a dangerous situation.
Article 51 of the United Nations Charter regulates that when a member state is subjected to an armed attack, it has the right of necessary defense until the Security Council takes security precautions. However, the UN has proven itself to be an irrelevant institution. For one, it’s powerless in punishing Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine because Russia is on the security council. In the geopolitical tensions that are tearing the world apart, nuclear weapons are caught up in the mix. However, the UN is powerless to do anything about it.
There are laws to prevent the occurrence of a nuclear war. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty dated 1970 and the Treaty on The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons dated 2017 are just some of them. Aslu said that these matter for nothing. However, that should be considered an error because the world hasn’t experienced a full-blown nuclear war yet.
While Aslu asks some great questions on the nature of law, as it applies to states. He fails to address the central issue of international relations today – the fact that international law is so hard to turn into reality because of the fractured world that we live in. There are issues that are hanging around the brew – the survival of the democratic republic, the rise of authoritarianism, the above-mentioned proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the continued threat of conventional war.
These are tough times we live in, with the idea of law on an international level fading. However, there is some hope. Russia is losing its bid to take Ukraine. However, the conflict will most likely end in a stalemate with a free Ukraine and Russia controlling the Donbas and Crimea. Let’s hope that China can be contained and kept out of Taiwan. The Israel/Palestine feud will also most likely be a stalemate. Hopefully, a Palestinian state can emerge in the areas where Palestinians live, but Israel will be the dominant power in the region.
After a bad experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States seems less willing to project power beyond its boundaries. Some good may come of this, as the primary power blocs – the US and its allies and the Chinese and their allies (Russia) could come to an understanding that the current state of international relations is volatile. We could come to an agreement to not invade sovereign countries, respect each other’s sphere of influence, and perhaps work to draw down the number of nuclear weapons in the world. A sense of law can come out of a shared power by the world’s power blocks.
What path will the US and other power centers follow? I guess we’ll find out.
Jason Sibert is the Lead Writer for the Peace Economy Project in St. Louis, Mo. Email jasonsibert@hotmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2023
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