As an American, I maintain with full confidence that I live in the United States of Amnesia. Our 2020 presidential elections stand as a case-in-point. For most Americans, we forsake history for the arbitrary conveniences that make its dismal oversimplifications possible. This makes cookie cutter dismissals of history conscionable which ignores its vast diversity & polarizing sensitivities.
World War 1 began as a whimper that culminated into a great bang that forever changed the world. Whoever thought the act of 1 spiteful Serbian ultranationalist would plunge mankind into world war? Considering the current geo-political conflagrations of the day, how many of our assumed leaders & influencers of the free world stress an informed understanding of world history? The notion of America first is reflective of our self-absorbed psychology as Americans; a defining feature of a nation that began long before the Trump era.
Few Americans, including our most educated democratically elected leaders, have heard let alone know anything about Nagorno-Karabakh, its turbulent history, & pernicious present. The renewed war in Nagorno-Karabakh proves the catastrophic nature of frozen conflicts. Does the brokerage of the Russian-Turkish ceasefire turned regional armistice prove the obsolescence of the United Nations? Has it served its purpose? Is it merely an entourage of powerful nations ruled by the dictatorship of the Security Council?
Arguably, its day has come & gone. Behind the alluring veil of democracy & human rights, the UN is little more than a society of elite bureaucrats that rival some of the most grotesque examples of white privilege in America. When elitists become apparatchiks, their existential primacy centers on the amplification of careerism through self-justification. This introduces a new dynamic challenging the limits of America’s geo-political maturity as a world power.
As former Soviet republics muster appetites for confrontation with a resurgent Russia backed by Washington, is America in any credible position to evolve & ultimately apply unilateral action using soft power through concerted diplomacy in the South Caucasus to forge permanent peace in disparate localities such as Nagorno-Karabakh? Comparatively, Russia is dominated by a foreign policy of geo-political regionalism based on former Soviet power alliances. Moscow, Washington, or any suprastate actor cannot guarantee the objective impartiality required to evolve a permanent peace in Nagorno-Karabakh without emphasizing priority to foreign policy imperatives.
Such is the reality of a post-Westphalian world order defined by the strengths, commitments, & contrarian interests of state actors turned competing unilateral hegemonies. Since its creation, the United Nations has proved little more than a glorified assembly of nations ruled by wealthy nations that act unilaterally while bending international law to serve the hegemonic interests of the Security Council. When reduced to a world teetering on the brink of competing anarchies, ideas that challenge the limits of our consciousness stand as our greatest hope against impending geo-political disaster. The concept of world government originates from time immemorial. The 21st century has never been riper for great supranational experiments made in the name of world government. Some of the most formative voices for a world pacific republic originated from the interwar years of the last century.
The question is, where does ideological romanticism end & practical inroads to the expansion of international law begin? What if the International Criminal Court expanded into a supranational body that exercised authority to function unilaterally as a state actor to enforce international law as endorsed by state-based-signatories? As a quasi-confederal-multinational-union, the ICC would exist as a peripheral state alongside its national sponsors. Its existential foundation would be defined as having an unwavering commitment to each area of international law emphasizing its humanitarian & criminal aspects coupled under a neutrality first foreign policy. Yet, is the pursuit of such a proposed supranational experiment feasible in a world bent on repeating the great blunders of the 20th century?
In America, we spiritedly teach that no one is above the law, but what of the world’s nations? Should nations act perniciously with minimal consideration of international law? The role of world policeman is best upheld by like-minded nations working toward a dignity based existence for mankind. The following point is as obvious as day: when militarism is substituted for statesmanship, a world of renaissance comes to light. A reality where weapons exports & black operations are traded for humanitarian peacekeepers, weapons inspectors, & civil engineers. This generic modality will build the permanent foundations of peace through a system of shared-peripheral-sovereignty for our common human interest.
Rest assured, in every imaginable likelihood, America may never join the bandwagon. The perceived likelihood of which will test such a great supranational experiment to its fullest capacities, known & unknown.