American academician Dr. Adam McConnell wrote about the USA’s non-subordination to the international order it established and its ruthlessness for TAM Analysis.
“There is a tendency among some to accept the fact that the United States (US) is the leader of the free world. Leadership is accepted where trust is first given, which depends on behavior; it is given cautiously and quickly taken back.”[1]
“There is a reason why we have never supported the International Criminal Court (ICC), because it is a direct affront to our sovereignty. We do not hold any international institution above American sovereignty.”[2]
As the weeks pass in Gaza, the situation becomes increasingly alarming as the Israeli army commits more atrocities and crimes, as the Israeli leadership persists on its bloody and self-destructive path, and as US officials continue to do nothing to force the Israelis to give up. Victory is a dream for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just as Darius and Xerxes pointlessly unleashed their massive armies on determined Greek city-states. Israel will be a pariah state until rational leadership emerges. The United States, on the other hand, will be known as the main supporter of the worst crimes against humanity in the early 21st century and as the country that abandoned the international order that it played a leading role in creating.
International law goes one step further
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan’s application to issue an arrest warrant for 2 Israeli and 3 Hamas officials [3], including Netanyahu, could be a turning point in the history of international law if accepted.
The first comparison that comes to mind is the arrest warrant issued by Spanish prosecutor Baltasar Garzon for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, which resulted in Pinochet’s long detention in England. Even though Pinochet was eventually allowed to return to Chile, [4] his imprisonment for his actions while dictator served as a beacon of hope for people everywhere whose societies had suffered similar atrocities.
Khan recently revealed that unnamed politicians from Western countries have expressed concern that the ICC might issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials. The very idea that international law can be applied equally to everyone disturbs the powerful [5].
Israel’s actions against civilians in Gaza exemplify one of the main reasons why international law was established to prosecute those who commit crimes against humanity. The United States should firmly defend Khan’s responsibility to act in such a situation. In contrast, Democratic and Republican officials questioned the ICC’s jurisdiction, threatening Khan and the ICC [6].
The international order was not established by the valor of the USA
The ICC is a newly added institution to the international order that the United States supported after World War II. [7] U.S. officials have acted disdainfully toward international institutions in the past. Still, I cannot recall a time when they so openly and publicly denied the legitimacy of the international order created by the United States.
This is not surprising, considering that the international order was established in line with America’s interests, not with its altruism. Leading American intellectuals began to focus on the problem of international relations, realizing that the British-led 19th-century global order was disintegrating, resulting in increasing chaos and violence.
For example, Dean Acheson, who would play an important role in the Bretton Woods negotiations and later serve as US Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953, gave a speech at Yale in November 1939, shortly after Germany started World War II. He made the following comments during a speech:
“The world order, which is vital to us, will continue to disintegrate unless a strong restructuring is undertaken. Any action, of course, requires a limitation on our power to act as we wish, when we wish. It is this so-called impairment of our sovereignty that leaves many of us trying to make our position in the world more secure.” “It scares the idea of accepting the responsibilities necessary for the future.”[8]
The reality of international order
The international order established after World War II aimed to serve both humanity and the interests of the United States, as Acheson’s comments make clear. Yet the United Nations (UN) and its related institutions have never been perceived as a panacea for humanity’s ills. In his memoirs, Acheson quotes the following words of Dag Hammarskjold, who was UN Secretary-General between 1953 and 1961.
“The Treaty… does not give the UN any of the characteristics of a superpower. The UN is rather an instrument of negotiation between governments and also an instrument added to the diplomatic toolbox of the time for joint action by governments in support of the objectives of the Treaty.” [9]
But these facts did not mean that the system could not grow or change over time, that international law could not gain credibility or even applicability over time, or that the UN could not become more than a forum for long-term conversations. These possibilities were embraced, and as the world developed during the Cold War and its aftermath, humanity became more aware of the potential of the UN.
The American vision turns into complacency
Unfortunately, U.S. officials long ago overlooked the fact that U.S. interests and security require not only having a strong military but also compromising with others to ensure global security and prosperity. The “new world order” declared by former President George HW Bush in 1990 meant that from now on, only US interests would dominate decision-making. [10] Since then, US officials have only paid lip service to the idea that global order is for all humanity, their actions making it clear that they see themselves as the New Rome, the new Leviathan, subject to no laws. The results were, to put it quite mildly, disastrous. Now the US is not only evading the international community, it is also providing the weapons that have killed more than 35,000 Gazan civilians.
I often find myself thinking about the enormous difference in understanding that U.S. politicians of Acheson’s time displayed compared to American officials today, regardless of their political leanings. Even figures from humble backgrounds such as Cordell Hull[11] and Harry Truman[12] understood that the prosperity of the United States depended on a stable world system in which it should both be anchored and interact in ways that respected other societies. Even a staunch isolationist like Arthur Vandenberg[13] understood that the post-war global situation required him to change his political ideology and embrace a positive, global role for the United States.
It is clear that today’s US officials no longer understand that they and the US must abandon their interests to play a constructive and stabilizing role in global affairs. It then falls to the rest of the world to reform the current system or to build a more viable alternative system that can provide peace and prosperity for as many people as possible.
[1] Former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, “A Democrat Looks at His Party,” 1955. p. 96.
[2] US House Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican, Louisiana) speaking to the press, May 22, 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyrrMGdTCJY.
[3] https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-state. Dr. Norman Finkelstein’s reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgSXEPoZB6Q.
[4] Jack Straw, then British Home Secretary, disgracefully allowed Pinotçet’s release on dubious grounds: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/663170.stm.
[5] https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/20/world/video/icc-chief-arrest-warrants-application-amanpour-digvid-ldn. See also: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/28/israeli-spy-chief-icc-prosecutor-war-crimes-inquiry.
[6] See Speaker Mike Johnson’s comments in footnote 2; See also US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s statement: https://www.state.gov/warrant-applications-by-the-international-criminal-court/ and https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/ 5/20/us-lawmakers-slam-icc-prosecutors-israel-arrest-warrant-requests.
[7] https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/ICCAtAGlanceEng.pdf
[8] “Morning and Noon,” Houghton Mifflin Co., 1965. p. 273-274.
[9] “Present at the Creation,” W. W. Norton & Co., 1969. p. 743. See also: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/712438?v=pdf.
[10] https://bush41library.tamu.edu/archives/public-papers/2217.
[11] Born in the mountains of Tennessee; Democrat; Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1933 and 1944.
[12] Missouri farmer without a college degree; Democrat; President between 1945 and 1953.
[13] Senator from Michigan, 1928-1951. He was the Senate’s most prominent Republican in the years after World War II.
[Dr. Adam McConnel has a master’s and doctorate in History from Sabancı University, where he taught Turkish History for 9 years.]
*The opinions expressed in the articles belong to the author and may not reflect the editorial policy of The Asia Mail.
