An age of extremes: eight challenges.

• Author: Crane, David M.
• Position: International Law in Crisis

We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations, far away. We have learned that we must live as men.... We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community. (1)

1. INTRODUCTION--AN AGE OF EXTREMES II. THE CHALLENGES AHEAD III. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS I. INTRODUCTION--AN AGE OF EXTREMES

   The new world order certainly has turned out to be far different than when President George H. W. Bush made that statement shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 and 1991. (2) It was a heady time, so full of hope, for a renewed world order. Francis Fukuyama declared the end of history, the rise of democracies, and a democratic peace. (3) A renewed U.N., neutered during the cold war, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.4 In the early 1990's the future looked bright indeed.

   It did not take long for the light to dim considerably. Whole regions of the world tumbled into chaos, from the Balkans to the Great Lakes region of East Africa to West Africa. (5) Tens of thousands of human beings were murdered, raped, mutilated, and maimed. (6) Eastern Europe more gently eased into a renewed Europe, with only Romania struggling at first, killing its leader and his wife after a kangaroo court; (7) however discrimination of the Roma people intensified. (8)

   Gun runners, diamond dealers, international criminal cartels, and terrorists emerged as this new world order settled into a time of uncertainty, dirty little wars, and terrorist attacks against the West, particularly the U.S. The new world order was evolving into an age of extremes with the very concept of the rule of law challenged. It was not the end of history and a democratic peace to be sure.

   As the world stumbled forward into the 21st century, the very fabric of world order was torn when three planes crashed into three buildings in New York and Washington, DC heralding a time of great uncertainty and challenges head. (9) This commentary will proffer eight observations related to those challenges, challenges that threaten international law.

2. THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

   A decade into the 20th century, democracy has remained the aspirational goal of many peoples around the globe, yet autocracy is on the rise as well. We see this in Russia as well as in China. Capitalist in nature, yet autocratic, these two formidable nations wield influence over vast stretches of the earth and, in China's case, great influence over the world's economy. (10) This is our first challenge to consider. With this new place in the global economy what do we do about Russia and China related to their human rights record, given their relative power politically and economically on the world stage?

   As permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, (11) both Russian and China can check any efforts related to human rights that they fear might threaten them. Both countries' human rights records are abysmal. (12) In the 20th century alone, eighty to ninety million people have perished under the internal policies of these two countries. (13) Because of their geopolitical and economic influence, other nations are reluctant to call them out on their past or current records of oppression. They are like sea anchors slowing the advancement of human rights. There is little realistic pressure to apply by the rest of the U.N. on Russian or Chinese human fights policies. Simply put, are these two nations getting away with murder?

   Closely related to the first challenge, the second challenge is the evolution of a two-tiered system of international criminal law. In some ways, it is the West and the rest. Why are only the less-powerful nations being held accountable for alleged international crimes while the more developed nations of the West (and the two autocracies of Russia and China) being given a pass on their actions and records?

   True justice and the rule of law can only be attained when that law is evenly applied across the board and not to just a few. This is a very serious threat to the advancement of the rule of law as a basis to international peace and security, to be sure. When the law is perceived to be unfair and unevenly applied, the respect for the system of international justice and law ends.

   A more subtle challenge--perceived by the African Union (14)--is that international justice and international law have remained "white man's justice." Stemming from the hubris of the colonial era, the modern paradigm of international criminal law laid out in Rome in 1998 (15) has just become more of the same: punishing Africans for infractions by former colonial powers. This is not true, but the perception that it is harms the international attempts to punish international crimes and face down impunity wherever found around the world. "Extreme law is often extreme injustice," quipped a sage Roman thinker. (16)

   A third challenge is the perceived, if not actual, diminished and tarnished stature of the U.S. Weakened by a global recession and a stalemated political process, and exhausted by ten years of war, the U.S. has suffered through a tough decade. Once the bright and shining city on the hill, the U.S. has lost the moral high ground related to allegations of torture, (17) secret prisons, (18) the spectacle and tragedy of Abu Ghraib, (19) and the show trials of Guantanamo. (20)

   Stung by the attacks of 9-11, the U.S. threw away the book and developed policy that not only violated international law but its own domestic law. (21) The illegality of electronic spying on its own citizens in violation of the Foreign Surveillance Act and the Intelligence Oversight Act (22), among other laws, during the hey-day of the misconceived "war on terror" is indicative of how far the previous administration went to secure our national security. With a dysfunctional Congress unable to perform its constitutional duties related to oversight of our national security structure, the facts will never be known about the electronic eavesdropping program and other top secret policies. (23) As Robert Maynard Hutchins prophetically commented in his 1954 work, GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD, "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." (24)

   Along with the loss of stature by the U.S., the European Union (25) has slipped economically down a slope of fractious and ineffective policy from which it may not be able to stop or correct. The loss of faith in the fundamentals of our Western economic model puts the world on the brink of economic collapse that can only bring further geopolitical weakness. One of the greatest political events in history, the union of European nations on a continent racked with conflict for a thousand years, is in jeopardy of dissolving, further eroding the stability of the world order. (26)

   A fourth challenge to the international community is the eventual withdrawal of the U.S. as a significant player in modern international criminal law over the next three to five years. (27) The nation that created and supported all of the international courts and tribunals from Nuremberg to Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as Sierra...