Will the world go all in on the ‘warring states period’?
One of the more important pieces I’ve read of late on the mad, sad, bad goings-on in our war-wracked and bloodied world is Sam Kahn’s Persuasion piece imploring we not give up on the liberal international order.
Mr Kahn talks of how the world appears to have entered something that might be called the “Warring States period”, or at least that is what it would be seen as an historical era.
In this period, he writes, the prevailing logic is all about zero-sum politics and it arguably started with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He added: “That seemed to be cemented this week when Israel, after resisting temptation for 20-odd years, gave in to it and struck Iran-not just hitting Iran’s nuclear program, but also assassinating generals, bombing the state TV station, and striking at Iran’s governance capacity”.
But it wasn’t even Israel’s attack on Iran, so much as the lack of shock about it.
As Mr Kahn notes, “There were no particular concerns about whether the strike was just or not, or even about the liberal international order — the idea that states are by default guaranteed their sovereignty, that even our enemies are dealt with through diplomacy, treaties, or, at a push, economic sanctions rather than military force”.
But now, he points out, even someone who’s as unimpressed by Vladimir Putin’s politics as Garry Kasparov is decrying the “illusion” of global order and stability.
Even so, it’s right to argue as Mr Kahn does, that we should not be cast down entirely. The international order should not be written off.
In truth, Israel can only keep up its role of regional hegemon so long as the US allows it to swan around as the biggest bully in the playground. And this is tricky territory. As Mr Kahn writes, “For Israel to engage in preemptive strikes against a nation state, which also involves a large number of civilian deaths and clearly goes beyond only targeting the nuclear program, undercuts Israel’s strongest argument in any future diplomatic negotiations — which is that it is a nation state, part of a larger community of nations, and deserves to be left alone within its borders”.
This has consequences for the wider world because it undermines the very sanctity of the nation state.
Will the world stand for that?
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
