144950
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Retired French Ambassador Skewers the ‘Rules-Based International Order’

by Noah Carl
28 November 2022 7:00 AM

The U.S. and its allies claim to uphold something called the ‘rules-based international order’. But is this really true?

No – according to Gérard Araud, former French ambassador to the U.S., who gave an unusually frank account of Western foreign policy in a recent debate:

I’ve always been extremely sceptical of this idea of “rules-based order” … I was the permanent representative to the United Nations. And actually, when you look at the hierarchy of the United Nations, everyone there is ours … when you look at the undersecretary generals, all of them are either American, French, British and so on … this order is reflecting the balance of power in 1945 … the Security Council, 95% of the time, has a Western-oriented majority.

Araud continued:

When the Americans want to do whatever they want, including when it’s against international law, as they define it, they do it. And that’s the vision that the rest of the world has of this order. The United Nations is a fascinating spot because you have ambassadors of all the countries … and their vision of the world is certainly not a rules-based order. It’s a Western order. And they accuse us of double-standards, hypocrisy and so on.

As the analyst K.J. Noh notes, there is already “a compendium of agreed-upon rules and treaties that the international community has negotiated”. It’s called international law, and is held together by the UN Charter.

American officials generally prefer the term ‘rules-based international order’ over the term ‘international law’, Noh argues, because they don’t want to be constrained by such laws. In fact, neoconservatives like the New York Times-columnist Bret Stephens believe the US should simply withdraw from the UN.

Noh provides examples of treaties the vast majority of countries in the world have signed but which the U.S. refuses to sign or from which it has withdrawn. He also lists treaties the U.S. has signed but which it routinely violates anyway.

Consider recent events. America and its allies have rightly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a violation of international law.

Yet the U.S. currently has troops in Syria against the explicit wishes of Syria’s government. The stated justification for this ongoing breach of international law is to help the Syrian Democratic Forces fight ISIS. But in 2019 former President Trump blurted out, “We left troops behind only for the oil”. His ‘gaffe’ is consistent statements made by other U.S. officials.

Once again, the U.S. and its allies have rightly condemned Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts as a violation of international law.

Yet in 2019, the U.S. officially recognised Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights – an area of Western Syria that it has occupied since 1967. No other country has recognised Israel’s claim to the territory, and a spokesman for the United Nations said “the status of Golan has not changed”.

Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has launched numerous illegal foreign interventions, some of which involved war crimes. Just last year, the U.S. killed seven children in a botched drone strike during its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. And American officials like John Bolton openly brag on TV about having “helped plan coup d’etats”.

None of this implies the U.S. is the only country that violates international law. It just happens to be among the worst offenders. Which makes a mockery of the ‘rules-based international order’ that America and its allies claim to uphold.

Tags: Gerard AraudRules-based international orderUnited States

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

News Round-Up

Next Post

Pfizer CEO Found to Have Misled the Public Over Child Covid Vaccination by Pharmaceutical Watchdog

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

19 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About Toby’s Appearance on the 77th Brigade’s Watch List, the Scrubbing of the Internet After the Pfizer Sting and the Trans Insanity Unfolding in Scotland

by Will Jones
31 January 2023
0

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

Could Sturgeon’s Trans Fiasco Be Woke’s Berlin Wall Moment?

2 February 2023
by Nick Dixon

News Round-Up

2 February 2023
by Will Jones

99 Doctors and Medical Professionals Demand the British Heart Foundation Comes Clean About Vaccine Heart Injury ‘Cover-Up’

2 February 2023
by Will Jones

How the Unvaccinated Got It Right

1 February 2023
by Robin Koerner

Democratic Countries Must Reject This WHO Power Grab That Threatens Global Lockdowns and Vaccine Mandates

2 February 2023
by Dr David Bell

News Round-Up

53

No, Ukraine Isn’t Losing and Stalemate Isn’t Inevitable

40

How the Unvaccinated Got It Right

65

Could Sturgeon’s Trans Fiasco Be Woke’s Berlin Wall Moment?

19

Democratic Countries Must Reject This WHO Power Grab That Threatens Global Lockdowns and Vaccine Mandates

14

99 Doctors and Medical Professionals Demand the British Heart Foundation Comes Clean About Vaccine Heart Injury ‘Cover-Up’

2 February 2023
by Will Jones

Masks Don’t Work, Gold Standard Review of Trial Data Concludes

2 February 2023
by Dr Robert Malone

Democratic Countries Must Reject This WHO Power Grab That Threatens Global Lockdowns and Vaccine Mandates

2 February 2023
by Dr David Bell

The Large Hadron Collider and the War in Ukraine

2 February 2023
by Noah Carl

Could Sturgeon’s Trans Fiasco Be Woke’s Berlin Wall Moment?

2 February 2023
by Nick Dixon

POSTS BY DATE

November 2022
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  
« Oct   Dec »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment