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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jttmab who wrote (87563)	3/29/2003 3:04:47 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

J, I think I did not explain my point well. What I meant to point out was that in every society (in my example UK) there was a time that people were subject of warlords and might-is-right and how-are-you-gonna-make-me policies. Slowly but surely every nation has replaced this plunder and pillage attitude in their country with the rule of law. This did not happen because one day the warlords woke up and saw they had a conscience. Fairness and goodness had nothing to do with it. It was the realization that fair play is in their interest that brought about this change. At first it was only the land owners who had a say. Once it sunk in that giving up some power in favor of short term gains frees up much more resources for more profitable ventures, the process was extended until everyone was included. Is UK paradise? Of course not. Is there murder in the society? Yes. But is it so much better than when every city state was at war with another one? Is everyone happier that they gave up some "protection" in return for not needing that protection? Of course. International policy today is the equivalent of what city states and warlord societies were like long ago. One reason why those city states existed is that they were mostly self contained. A thousand years ago few people ever went more than 10 miles away from their home. When it became easy for the guys 100 miles away to frequently attack each other, the rule of law and civilization expanded to the 100 mi radius. Countries in general are formed along geographical barriers. So the adoption of the rule of law remained mostly an internal matter. What we are dealing with is a matter of scale. Technology has transformed the world into a global village but our policy stance is still that of a city state or warlord societies. It is now possible that what happens in Kabul can affect New York directly. The solutions that most people are offering are variations of the old let's ransack their castle and subjugate them idea that has been tried in every country and has failed and been replaced with ethical rule of law. Try as the neo-cons or the realists may do, they will not be able to succeed. The only solution is to work towards establishing international bodies that in effect create a global federation of states. True union will be a long time away, but there is no reason why we cannot accelerate its creation. That cannot be done so long as there are those who believe selfish and conceited behavior in the name self-interest is a viable policy. Sun Tzu