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The Iraq Crisis in Context
Diemer, Ulli
http://www.diemer.ca/Docs/Diemer-IraqCrisisinContext.htmDate Written: 2003-03-12 Publisher: Connexions Information Sharing Services / Ulli Diemer, Toronto, Canada Year Published: 2003 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX5290 A rogue state, heavily armed with weapons of mass destruction, openly contempuous of international law and the United Nations, plunges the world into crisis. Abstract: The ambitions of U.S. power are by no means limited to Iraq, though the Iraq crisis does mark a turning point. The U.S. is openly declaring that it is no longer interested merely in being the predominant power within a system of international institutions that allow other countries a degree of autonomy and power with which to pursue their own interests. The rules are to be changed fundamentally. The U.S. is now proclaiming that it intends to run the world as it sees fit, bound by no multilateral institutions, and by no rules other than the ones it itself proclaims, and which it is free to change or ignore as its short-term interests dictate. The United Nations will be allowed to continue to function only if it is content to be an instrument of U.S. policy. The World Trade Organization must adopt policies dictated by U.S. corporations, or it too will be sidelined. Even more frighteningly, the U.S. is declaring that it no longer intends to abide by the international treaties which prohibit the use of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, and which outlaw any military use of space. Subject Headings |