Henry A. Kissinger, who was the U.S. secretary of state from 1973 to 1977, has recently written a column for the Washington Post.
The opinion piece, titled "Syrian intervention risks upsetting global order", was warning that the world entered a post-Westphalia age in international law.
Humanitarian intervention is slowly becoming a norm, while Westphalian concepts such as national sovereignty and balance of power are being rendered obsolete.
Whoever I met for interviews recently, I asked about this article, which I found significant, both on theoretical and practical levels.
I've just finished an article for my column on the website of Hürriyet, due to be published tomorrow. I tried to analyze the overall picture, but here is what some international actors told me when I asked them about Kissinger's article (many of them didn't even notice the article, but they answered after I summarized it):
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (June 3rd, Istanbul):
"I can only say that the structure, as well as the operating method, of UN Security Council should change. Member states tend not to step back when it's about their national interests. But for the sake of global peace and security, they should get beyond their own national interests."
Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar (June 9th, Istanbul):
"(In the fight against terrorism) The core of the issue is national sovereignty. American airstrikes in Pakistan is against law and justice. They are also counter-productive. We're concerned about the hostile reactions that such attacks can produce. We should take a lesson from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and how international community had countered it. Those elements (anti-Soviet jihadis) has become our Frankenstein now."
Finland President Sauli Niinistö (June 12th, Helsinki):
"The conditions are not ripe for an intervention in Syria. But I still believe that national sovereignty is a fiction. UN has already got a 'responsibility to protect' (R2P). The question is: Will it be harder to protect civilians in a new situation (regime change) in Syria?"
"R2P is not an international law rule, but a norm. In September 2010, we proposed a resolution together with Turkey to the UN General Assembly and it was adopted unanimously. It was the first resolution on peace intermediation. If conflicts cannot be solved by such intermediation, then UN Security Council and UN General Assembly can propose other (military) solutions."
Former Finland President and United Nations mediator Martti Ahtisaari (June 13th, Helsinki):
"Arab Spring showed that democracy and human rights are not Western values, but universal values. I believed that the same region will produce a positive change soon or late without foreign intervention."
Posts
