The ‘global rules-based order’ is an idealistic myth

News: Unexpected Russian military intervention in Ukraine is the latest example of an underlying cause of decay in the international ‘rules-based’ order.

Where did the idea of an ‘international rules-based order’ originate?

Diet of Westphalia (then Holy Roman Empire) in 1648 established the principle of ‘sovereignty’. For a long time, it has been the founding principle behind the UN Charter. It established wars of aggression illegal under international law and liable to be punished by the international community via the UN Security Council.

To what extent does a rules-based order really exist?

There is a lot of debate on this amongst IR scholars. Whether or not we actually live in an international society of states, where a community that feels like one accepts a set of common guiding principles and is willing to operate according to rules/norms of behavior.

Another is whether international society is still merely a system of states, In which individual actors, adhere to global ‘rules’ to the extent convenient to them or bend and break those rules when core national interests are involved.

In the second interpretation, states are engaged in rational-utilitarian cooperation, competition, and even conflict, depending on the particularity of each situation.

Why a rule-based order is merely a convenient illusion?

In the absence of effective enforcement of rules, the notion of rules is an empty idea. Because it hardly has any compelling power to affect the actual foreign policy choices made by states. As we can see in the case of five permanent members. They make use of veto whenever there is the possibility of global action against themselves.

UN Security Council intervention in an international crisis has only been possible in the rarest of rare exceptions when all five permanent members happened to agree. As we can see, Russia and China veto American, French, and British resolutions and vice-versa.

Does rule-based order really exist?

Russian intervention in Ukraine is an example of the erosion of the belief that rule-based order exists. All the great powers, including during and after the Cold War, consists of largely self-interested countries, driven by a desire for national security and glorification.

What is the source of stability in the international system?

It is the nuclear weapons that are capable of destroying human civilization. The notion of ‘mutually assured destruction’ created a tension that prevent warfare even between two nuclear-armed rivals.

Source: This post is based on the article “The ‘global rules-based order’ is an idealistic myth” published in the Indian Express on 3rd March 2022.