The World System since 1500 - Essay Example

The role of international law and human rights in the Cold War and the Post Cold War eras The cold war remained around for 40 years and is characterized by the tension between the United States and Soviet Union and their respective allies. This was the period from the mid 1940s until the early years of 1990s; during this era international relations between the major powers including USSR, Britain, France, China and United States moved the world. Some popular events like the Cuban Missile Crises, Korean and Vietnam wars, and the tension prevailing in Afghanistan were of foremost notice. But, as the time progressed Soviet Union's power declined and declined further as majority of the Soviet Union's resources were eaten up for the use in war times. Military had consumed around a quarter of the Gross National Product's share and the focus from production of consumer goods and investment in the civilian sector declined more and more as the time progressed. In 1985 Soviet Union's growth rate had approached to almost zero, the currency experienced a major fall, adding more to the fact that the petroleum prices slide. To end the turmoil Mikhail Gorbachev reached concessions with the United States and started to back out by informing that they are no more interested in intervening the affairs of the allied states in Eastern Europe and also withdrew their forces from Afghanistan. And finally, in 1989, George H.W. Bush announced that the cold war era has finally reached an end. And later in that year USSR broke into fifteen different independent states. The problem or the so called sovereignty of the states is protected by the nations' acts of advancements and defense of their interests at the expense of all the other nations. And thus International Law has always been struggling to protect the world from this menace of war. But so far, it is bad to see that the International Law has failed to prevent the world from this injustice that has been the characteristic of each and every war that has taken place and the role of International law has also remain limited in influencing the actions of these independent states. In fact, the states themselves have negatively exploited the use of International Law for their own self purposes. International law has some problems not with its content or lack of awareness, but it lacks in the enforcement area; it is still unable to make sure all the time whether states are complying with their agreements that they have made and are not simply backing out or neglecting the terms as they see fit. However, its role is not at all dead but it still plays a role in the decision making of the states but so far influence is considerably less. International law contains the series of agreements that are meant to codify and enforce the code of conduct and ethics necessary for the interaction amongst the states, which has been approved by the varying members of the world community. From the statement it can be inferred that International Law itself is not imposed on different parties i.e. the nations, but they themselves voluntarily agree to be a part of it. It is important to evaluate whether over the years the International Law has remained successful and has been able to serve the purposes to the full extent or not. According to liberals, International Law has been serving well enough to strive towards the mutual benefit of all the involved parties. Constructivists argue that the interests and the identities of the states are mutually constitutive leading to the possibility that International Law achieves the mutual benefits for all simultaneously. However, liberals and constructivist still do not provide any solid reason for why states interact with one another well enough. These theories have so far undermined the individual nature of self interest and has let them open to pursue their self interest and thus states act in their best interest despite the fact that the International Law sees that the states should see the interests as one world wide common interest. At the international level, human rights abuses and violations of law are clearly condemned yet the behavior of the countries that are a party to them especially the guilty party normally never pays a heed to the International Law. Some accords or agreements have been reached amongst the nations of the world community to foster the human rights' obligations on each and every one's part; one of them is the Helsinki Accord that emerged in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe 1973-19751. The accord served as the standard to set legal and not the political benchmarks for the behavior of the government to protect the human rights and the contact within themselves. The act covers areas as depicted from this - In its December 7, 1973 proposal, Norway wrote that "[t]he participating States . . . undertake to examine favorable [sic] on humanitarian grounds, applications for exit or entry permits from nationals of their own State or of other participating States who wish to marry or have married" (id.). The Helsinki Final Act stated: "The participating States will examine favorably and on the basis of humanitarian considerations requests for exit or entry permits from persons who have decided to marry a citizen from another participating State" (vol. 6, p. 223).2 But more important is not the act itself but whether the terms are really been followed in practice rather than just agreed to To answer, look at the example of the Soviets who promised their citizens a certain level of freedom just for their own political position but its results from the western side were disastrous thinking that this focus on human rights would considerably shift the stress from Soviet domestic policy to human rights related issues and this proved that none of the other believed each other and the strong air of distrust prevailed amongst all nations of the world community. But, what it led to was that throughout the Cold War the pressure was to attend to the human rights leading further to Mikhail Gorbachev's attempt to formulate certain reforms. But, the International Law still couldn't do anything and it still kept failing to influence the decision making of the states because it didn't have any effective means of enforcing and in practical could not stop states from deterring their own self interests. Further, moving on to other standards of International Law on humanitarian concerns include Geneva Convention which consisted of four treaties; the four treaties have different focuses pertaining to the human rights' issues viz. first emphasized on the amelioration of the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field; second's focus was the amelioration of the conditions of wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of the armed forces; later was followed by its spotlight on treatment of the prisoners of war and lastly for the protection of civilians during the time of war. The amendments of the convention further relate to the protection of the victims of international armed conflicts, protection of the victims of the non armed conflict, and lastly adoption of an additional distinctive emblem. But, the Geneva Convention has offered very little in enforcement of international law against nation states' political violations. The Convention has authorized the states to bring the parties to trial who have violated any clause with respect to the convention laid out; but US being the super power has already disallowed any trials, instead bringing in an independent mediator to help solve the problem over the board. Once the violation has been established, however, the burden is placed on the parties in question to "put an end to it and (shall) repress it with the least possible delay" (The Geneva Conventions Article 52). An act that is reprehensible and blameworthy in all aspects is torturing; though parties which use this means justify it reasonably by saying that it comes as the need is perceived. The Geneva Convention should take a bold step to halt this situation rather than allowing parties to use this means at their own discretion. Moving, further to more human rights issue the problems that we saw emerging included armament and the spread of nuclear weapons and wars. Many countries including US, China and a few others have violated international accords just by justifying that they have been doing so to pursue their interest in nuclear defense development. Examples of violations of accord in armament have been observed by North Korea and Iran although these states have been a member of the community signing the Non Proliferation Treaty for the nuclear weapons. Now, moving on to analyze the post Cold war era the bipolar world is now shifted its inclination towards a more multipolar front with China, Germany, France and a few other gaining the strength. This has led to formulation and activeness of more international institutions emerging on the world political and also the economic front. States have remained the main players of the international society3. Their national and self interest has played the role in guiding and shaping the policies. Some of the phenomenon that have emerged in the meanwhile include inclination towards nationalism, and ethnocentrism with its reactionary and exclusiveness, fundamentalism and extremism with strong religious tones, the language and role of the market freed from national controls. These phenomena not only collapsed the already established order but also led to a more valid humane value system. The colonial rule ended in many parts of the world, and victors were seen not to punish the poor victims of the war. This led to a change in the international paradigm as to how the international relations were viewed all over the world. What was seen was Messianism being emerged, which promised human freedom from poverty, ignorance and fear and led to the unity of the one world system under a single umbrella, united on the same platform. The focus is now on spreading of the universal education system, leading to an extension of an information network and further globalization led to increases in the role that information played in raising self-consciousness among people. What was seen was the social discontent emerging leading to more conflict and collision because as the awareness level of people increased demand for basic human rights also increased and it often collided with the government asserting "national interest." The repression of political and civil rights and the gap between the rich and the poor grew broader and broader. The new international order now is based on understanding and compassion for human beings and not on abuse of human values and systems emerging from differences in the individual's political and also the religious philosophies. Now it has become important to realize the importance, worth and appreciate the human beings. This means preserving the individual right to protect their integrity as well as stressing them to perform their duty to honor and protect other people's rights. Post Cold war era led to declarations like The Copenhagen declaration - which suggested that it is every man's and woman's right to keep his or her own life and the most important national goal is to protect the right to maintain human integrity. This extension of human rights can no longer be contained within the borders of a single nation state. Ideologies or values which have sustained a country with absolute authority have turned out to be relative4. The world system should now learn to accept and build the democratic political system that tolerates different cultures and traditions. Development of tolerance for for various challenges emerging from different religious beliefs and doctrines. The importance to human values should lead to building a new human-centered civilization. The protection of people from the various environmental problems that all the humankind face, the wars, the poverty all should be given equal importance. References Rouse, T Voluntary Defection: An Analysis of the Failings of International Law Shik, O New International Order and Human Rights in the Post Cold War Era. Retrieved September 18, 2007, Web site: http://www.hrsolidarity.net/mainfile.php/1996vol06no01/97/ Gyarmati, I The Post-Cold War Risks and Challenges in the OSCE Region. Retrieved Septermber 17, 2007, from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/3isf/Online_Publications/WS5/WS_5B/Gyarmati.htm Rehman, J (2002). International Human Rights Law. Gardiner, R (2003). International Law. Read More