Retired French Ambassador Skewers the ‘Rules-Based International Order’
The U.S. and its allies claim to uphold something called the ‘rules-based international order’. But is this really true?
No – according to Gérard Araud, former French ambassador to the U.S., who gave an unusually frank account of Western foreign policy in a recent debate:
I’ve always been extremely sceptical of this idea of “rules-based order” … I was the permanent representative to the United Nations. And actually, when you look at the hierarchy of the United Nations, everyone there is ours … when you look at the undersecretary generals, all of them are either American, French, British and so on … this order is reflecting the balance of power in 1945 … the Security Council, 95% of the time, has a Western-oriented majority.
Araud continued:
When the Americans want to do whatever they want, including when it’s against international law, as they define it, they do it. And that’s the vision that the rest of the world has of this order. The United Nations is a fascinating spot because you have ambassadors of all the countries … and their vision of the world is certainly not a rules-based order. It’s a Western order. And they accuse us of double-standards, hypocrisy and so on.
As the analyst K.J. Noh notes, there is already “a compendium of agreed-upon rules and treaties that the international community has negotiated”. It’s called international law, and is held together by the UN Charter.
American officials generally prefer the term ‘rules-based international order’ over the term ‘international law’, Noh argues, because they don’t want to be constrained by such laws. In fact, neoconservatives like the New York Times-columnist Bret Stephens believe the US should simply withdraw from the UN.
Noh provides examples of treaties the vast majority of countries in the world have signed but which the U.S. refuses to sign or from which it has withdrawn. He also lists treaties the U.S. has signed but which it routinely violates anyway.
Consider recent events. America and its allies have rightly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a violation of international law.
Yet the U.S. currently has troops in Syria against the explicit wishes of Syria’s government. The stated justification for this ongoing breach of international law is to help the Syrian Democratic Forces fight ISIS. But in 2019 former President Trump blurted out, “We left troops behind only for the oil”. His ‘gaffe’ is consistent statements made by other U.S. officials.
Once again, the U.S. and its allies have rightly condemned Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts as a violation of international law.
Yet in 2019, the U.S. officially recognised Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights – an area of Western Syria that it has occupied since 1967. No other country has recognised Israel’s claim to the territory, and a spokesman for the United Nations said “the status of Golan has not changed”.
Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has launched numerous illegal foreign interventions, some of which involved war crimes. Just last year, the U.S. killed seven children in a botched drone strike during its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. And American officials like John Bolton openly brag on TV about having “helped plan coup d’etats”.
None of this implies the U.S. is the only country that violates international law. It just happens to be among the worst offenders. Which makes a mockery of the ‘rules-based international order’ that America and its allies claim to uphold.
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Those pathetic EU officials need to retire to be able to speak their mind. When in office, they just tow the party line and agree to whatever catastrophic policy is expected of them by the global bully. They clap their hands and smile when their multibillion dollar pipelines are blow up.
Russia most likely would have thought twice before invading if a fair and transparent ‘rule-based international order’ had been there and applied to all countries. But then, there would have been no successful coup d’etat, overthrowing of a democratically elected president and ensuing civil war in Ukraine (and in many other countries) in the first place.
Re: ‘Russia most likely would have thought twice before invading if a fair and transparent ‘rule-based international order’ had been there and applied to all countries.
We are all (including leaders, members of governments and those who support them) fully morally responsible for our own actions and can’t point to those of others by way of excuse.
That includes instigating and carrying out mass destruction, displacement, essential infrastructure degradation, injury and death in Ukraine.
Re: ‘But then, there would have been no successful coup d’etat, overthrow of a democratically elected president’
If you are referring to the events in Kiev in 2014 those in fact consisted of a failed anti-democratic Kremlin-backed violent coup by the pro-Russian President Yanukovich followed by his democratic removal from office by a vote of 328 to 0 on the Ukrainian Parliament.
‘and ensued civil war in Ukraine in the first place.’
After this failed anti-democratic coup the Putin regime moved to engineer (including through the clandestine insertion of Russian forces plus material support) an armed insurrection in the Donbas region, as well as illegally invading and annexing the Ukrainian province of Crimea.
We are all (including leaders, members of governments and those who support them) fully morally responsible for our own actions and can’t point to those of others by way of excuse. you meddle in other countries’ backyards, you get in bed with violent neo nazi thugs and, naturally, you reap what you sow. If you are referring to the events in Kiev in 2014 those in fact consisted of a failed anti-democratic Kremlin-backed violent coup by the pro-Russian President Yanukovich followed by his democratic removal from office by a vote of 328 to 0 on the Ukrainian Parliament. when you think you know more than an average BBC propaganda viewer, but you fail anyway, as you haven’t read enough. be my guest, read here about the democratic removal: https://consortiumnews.com/2022/10/16/the-response-newsguard-rejected/ After this failed anti-democratic coup the Putin regime moved to engineer (including through the clandestine insertion of Russian forces plus material support) an armed insurrection in the Donbas region, as well as illegally invading and annexing the Ukrainian province of Crimea. Long before any support from Russia, Kiev sent tanks and planes to pacify civilians, protesting the Kiev coup in the east of the country. British TV even tried to report… Read more »
Re ‘you meddle in other countries’ backyards’, Well, nobody could deny that that expression would apply to the Russian Federation’s ‘involvement’ with Ukraine – But only as an almost comically insufficient euphemism for the actual decades long project of malicious economic and political interference, intimidation, stirring up sectarian hatred and violence, attempted coups, large land grabs via annexation, and full-on military invasion followed by mass displacement, destruction, injury and death. ‘you get in bed with violent neo nazi thugs’ Though I wouldn’t use personalised labelling like that the Russian Wagner Group, which recently sent a bloody sledge hammer (they had already posted a video online showing another one being used to murder one of their victims) in a violin case to the European Union body investigating its activities, could certainly be labelled as ultra-fascist (the word ‘Nazi’ describes a specific localised political movement which ceased to exist about 75 years ago). “and, naturally, you reap what you sow.” Regardless of the validity or otherwise of your allegations above two wrongs don’t make a right (and that obviously equally applies to any arguments in favour of revenge against the Russian Federation and its supporters). Re ‘when you think you know more… Read more »
decades long project of malicious economic and political interference after the soviet union collapse, Russia was always in the top 3 of Ukraine import/export partners. Ukraine hugely benefited (and still does!) from Russian oil and gas transport business. mass displacement, destruction, injury and death talking about Donbass region? Though I wouldn’t use personalised labelling like that the Russian Wagner Group, which recently sent a bloody sledge hammer (they had already posted a video online showing another one being used to murder one of their victims) in a violin case to the European Union body investigating its activities, could certainly be labelled as ultra-fascist (the word ‘Nazi’ describes a specific localised political movement which ceased to exist about 75 years ago). I’m unable to see a point made here. you used ‘Nazi’, I used ‘neo nazi’ label, the very same label each and every MSM used describing certain groups in Ukraine prior to this year. revenge against the Russian Federation and its supporters Zelensky begged for revenge, begged for preemptive nuclear strikes, for WW3, for closed skies, but has always been immediately shown his place. And we (Britain) haven’t even stopped buying Russian oil! how revengeful obscure internet sites interesting, what… Read more »
decades long project of malicious economic and political interference “after the soviet union collapse, Russia was always in the top 3 of Ukraine import/export partners. Ukraine hugely benefited (and still does!) from Russian oil and gas transport business.” The specific malicious economic interference I was referring to was the long standing Russian Federation attempts to block Ukrainian alignment with the much more prosperous (and indeed more anti-corruption / regulation-based) European Union rather than themselves; Culminating in President Yanukovych’s failed attempt in 2014 to overthrow both his own and the Parliament’s democratic mandate to sign an EU Association Agreement. mass displacement, destruction, injury and death “talking about Donbass region?” Yes, Donbas has indeed been the area in Ukraine which has suffered by far the greatest levels of the above as a result of Russian interference, both before and much more especially after the invasion of February 24 this year. Though I wouldn’t use personalised labelling like that the Russian Wagner Group, which recently sent a bloody sledge hammer (they had already posted a video online showing another one being used to murder one of their victims) in a violin case to the European Union body investigating its activities, could certainly be… Read more »
….the USA are currently occupying a third of Syria, stealing and starving the people in that sovereign country…they are also refusing to return money, illegally stolen from Afghanistan, ensuring mass starvation.……
…..talking about essential infrastructure?…ever seen picture of Iraq or Afghanistan after the wholesale carpet bombing by US/NATO?
There is no other country in modern times that has interfered so much in upending legitimate Government, fomenting coups and financing protests, than the USA…none…and by a long way!
Without entering into a discussion about the validity of these claims, how does any of it have anything to do with the Russian Federation’s project of mass destruction and murder / land gabbing etc in Ukraine?
..everything..because you keep talking as though it’s a singular event, never seen before, and such things have never been committed by ‘the West’…and much worse….and as though it’s something singularly evil and bad…it isn’t.
How does Ukraine have anything to do with the Imperialist USA’s project of theft, destruction and starvation in Syria? Happening Now, today?
Weather it was true or not at the start..the USA/NATO carry as much blame in the promotion and continuation of this conflict…..
”We are all fully responsible for our moral actions” you said…so why doesn’t the West take the moral high ground..stop arming Ukraine, and force peace talks?
If the ‘rules’ were applied equally to everyone, then Russia’s genuine misgivings about the encroachment of NATO would have been addressed….
Legislation is not ‘law’; international Treaties are not ‘law’ they are contracts which can be terminated or broken as desired by any party.
Law is discovered – it always existed, like gravity. Like the Common Law we used to have but which has mostly been replaced by Code ‘Law’ – aka, legislation.
Legislation is invented to serve political interest usually by awarding advantage to one favoured group with cash and clout over another or the majority.
Treaties serve the interests of those Countries with the most economic and military power.
“a compendium of agreed-upon rules and treaties that the international community has negotiated”.
There is no such thing as ‘the international community’, and as for ‘negotiated’, sign up Bangladesh or we stop the foreign aid and apply sanctions.
Some folk live in Never Never Land.
I have stated a number of times here on DS that international law is not binding despite the frequent parroting of our western governments.
So with regard to the pandemic preparedness treaty we just need to tell the wholly unelected and unofficial WHO to shove it. Of course that won’t happen but trying to sell it on the grounds that it is “binding” is clearly BS.
Everyone knows that you can bend the so called ‘international law’ if you need to. When Russia invaded ‘unprovoked’, it was blamed solely on Putin’s ambitions without there being any past history. If not prepared to fight Russia, why not agreeing on some temporary compromise, even not beneficial to Kiev’s immediate prestige? I mean, how long Putin’s left to rule (as per MSM, he’s terminally ill)? When he’s gone, you ask Ukrainians what they want and, naturally, they all back neo nazi loving Kiev in which case you bend the ‘rule-based international order’ again and lives of Ukrainians are saved and destruction of the country is prevented.
Nothing of the sort has been attempted and even the slightest prospect of a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia squandered by our very own lying imbecile BoJo for the reason that the war was expected and eagerly wanted and Ukrainians are used as just a tool to weaken Russia.
Firstly, if you are the country pushing the ‘rules’, it seems to me that to be taken seriously, you have to follow those rules yourself..or all legitimacy is lost, surely?
The USA have no legitimacy at all in this regard, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Syria…what is anyone to make of their ‘rules’ other than brazen self-interest and utter hypocrisy?
Do as I say, not as I do, writ large…..
Secondly, what legitimacy do America and ‘the west’ claim, in being the only ones who can make the rules? I presume that’s why they throw the ‘liberal’ word before the ‘rules based international order’….? So that anyone they deem illiberal… pretty much anyone who isn’t them….can’t take part in deciding the rules?
America has a World Series in baseball..that doesn’t actually involve anyone else in the world!! …. Enough said……
Mr. Carl being lauded:
https://www.unz.com/article/no-david-cole-race-realism-research-continues-despite-the-new-dark-age/
The right kind of ‘young leader’!
A US president (FDR) said “Walk softly and carry a big stick”. That’s about the size of it.
I think that was Theodore Roosevelt. FDR was the one who couldn’t walk because he had had polio earlier in his life.
The rules-based international order is a military diktat the so-called allied powers of WWII forced onto the world to ensure that the world, especially in central Europe, remains in the state they have chosen for it and that they won’t suffer further violent reverses there. It’s basically a the Germans must never again be free and rule themselves rule-based order (this being the rule), nothing else. Putin would have to be complimented for putting the torch to this nonsense if he wouldn’t employ all this But I really didn’t do it! weaselwording propaganda.
A country founded on the opening up of direct trade with authoritarian China in 1773 by slave-owners who, whilst proclaiming ‘liberty’ and calling themselves ‘patriots,’ violently usurped power with the help of their government’s sworn enemy (the French monarchy) that to this day has its citizen venerate and salute a variant of the East India Company flag – what else to be expected? Maybe, just maybe, all this talk of American Exceptionalism, The American Experiment and rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is nothing more than propaganda to conceal more sinister agenda.