The International Arena - Essay Example

Hobbes once argued that society by default is chaotic.  It only managed to establish order when it decided to give up some of its freedom to establish a government with rules that would put an order in society.  The international arena can be likened to this Hobbes's description of a society that is chaotic to the point of anarchy that no matter how nations tried to establish order, chaos, and anarchy will still prevail and war cannot be avoided, and thus, morality has no place.  At most, what was achieved was a failed attempt to establish morality and an archaic order of the day.

One may dispute this by raising the argument that nations are forming groups and alliances with the objective of making this world better by fostering peace, economic prosperity, harmony, and cooperation.  Nobody can dispute that.  It can even be added that there is the UN with its councils and courts, the WTO, the G7, NATO, ASEAN and what have you.  But the question is, were they ever succeed in their objectives?  The glaring truth is No and morality will only be considered when it serves a certain purpose but in reality, it really has no place as nations assert with their selfish interest.  Can you blame them?  No.  We cannot blame because nations have to advance the interest, welfare, and security of their own people and country even if it means transgressing other countries.  What is moral becomes relative and immorality can be twisted into something moral to justify interest.  You just cannot be nice in the international arena otherwise you will be eaten alive.

 One may protest that this is a very harsh description of the international arena but harsh as it is, it is true.  We can cite many recent examples and we do not have to go far.  In the United States, the anarchic war of terror is plaguing us and the way it is waged on us is devoid of morals.  Imagine killing innocent civilians just to destroy our way of life.   And the way we respond cannot be categorized as moral no matter how we justify it that we are the good guys.  We kill, we bomb, we torture people, and we connive and manipulate other governments just to achieve our end.  Is that orderly as contrary to anarchy or moral as we would like it to be?  The answer is a glaring no.

What made the situation worst is that we and everyone else never learned the lesson of history and experience.  We all know that war is a lose-lose situation where its destructive force knows no one.  But look around, the international arena is an archaic war of all as if we never knew the concept of morality.  Syria is now undergoing a brutal civil war.  In Libya, we help them oust their former dictator Gaddafi thinking that they will be grateful to us.  Instead, they attacked our embassy and killed our personnel.  Now, you may ask where are order and morals there.  Isn’t that a classic example of anarchy where all is against all because you are not sure who your allies are?

Perhaps one is inclined to wonder why we are so predisposed to war and anarchy.  The answer is obvious.  For as long as there is a conflict of interest, there will always be anarchy and our sense of morals will always be set aside in pursuit of our interest.  Dostoyoevsky already anticipated this as he wrote a sketchy outline in his short essay The Dream of a Ridiculous Man that anarchy without morals is about to happen as we esteemed governments advancing our interests as people.   Why not esteem them?  They get elected and it is morally upright for government to assert the aspiration of the people they represent.  The problem is, these interests could also be in conflict with other countries who also have the same mandate to assert the interest of their people.  So what happens next?  Conflict ensued and anarchy became the order of the day despite the efforts to establish order and morals only exist in words to justify a nation’s interest. 

A clear example is the conflict going on in Sabah.  The Sultan of Jolo had been the traditional ruler of Sabah and they had the island leased to the British North Borneo Company in 1898.  When the Second World War ended British North Borneo Company instead turned over the island to Malaysia which or course would not refuse to have its territories expanded even if they do not own them.  Conflict ensued with the claim until recently followers of the Sultan made a reclaim where the Malaysian government tagged them as “armed intruders” and just launched an attack that escalated to war.  This is clear anarchy where superiority in arms speaks a very strong language.  Had morals existed, Malaysia would have turned over Sabah to the Philippines but it did not because it is already profiting from the islands.  This situation exists everywhere albeit the details differ.   Countries will always advance their interest, right or wrong, and being such, the international arena is an anarchic war of all against all where morality has no place.