(Re)Building Afghanistan: The Folly of Stateless Democracy

2004 ◽  
Vol 103 (672) ◽  
pp. 165-170
Author(s):  
Barnett R. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Joint Action ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
International Community ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
Common Goals

Unlike Iraq, in Afghanistan an international consensus supports common goals for the entire operation, providing a test of whether the ‘international community’ is capable of effective joint action to make societies secure, even when their insecurity threatens the whole world. So far the results indicate that governments and international institutions are not up to the job.

Introduction

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith G. Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Process Monitoring ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Political Process ◽  
International Community ◽  
Election Monitoring

This introductory chapter discusses the credibility of international institutions and the methods the international community uses to promote good domestic governance. It asks about whether international election monitors improve the quality of elections. Given the logistical and political challenges to their efforts to assess elections, skeptics would have plenty of reasons to question claims that monitoring organizations could actually influence the behavior of politicians in any way. Theoretically, monitors may be able to improve elections through several mechanisms. Yet, as early critics noted, international election monitoring organizations are highly complicated actors and monitoring is a complex undertaking. By injecting themselves into the domestic political process, monitoring organizations raise many questions about their conduct and effects and, by extension, about the motivations of the international actors who sponsor them.

scholarly journals International Community’s Approach to Western Balkans: In Search of Stability and Security

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (85) ◽  
pp. 64-88
Author(s):  
Janez Juvan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
International Community ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Stability

Abstract The article presents research on the international community’s engagement in the countries of the Western Balkans in the past and their possible approach in the future. The focus of our research is on the functioning of mechanisms through which the international community performs certain tasks in the region. These interventions are primarily political, in the form of conferences, political programmes, consultations, pressures and continuous persuasion. Economic initiatives follow afterwards. By using different reform approaches, international institutions try to improve cooperation with the European Union (EU) and countries such as the USA, Russia, Turkey and China. Our research attempts to identify possible methods and new solutions for individual cases of conflict in Western Balkans countries, especially where the international community is actively involved. On this basis, we created a more holistic approach. The application of these measures could make the necessary reforms of the future easier. Our approach emphasises all the elements of security that are essential to the stability of the region and for the prevention of conflicts in the future.

Part 5 Emerging Constitutions in Islamic Countries, 5.8 Constitutional Legitimacy in Iraq: What Role Local Context?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Al-Ali Zaid
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
International Community ◽  
International Norms ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Local Context ◽  
The Future ◽  
Constitutional Legitimacy ◽  
Parliamentary Oversight

This chapter explores how it can be that, despite the attention of international institutions and experts in a particular constitutional process, and despite the application of international norms relating to democratic processes and fundamental rights, a constitutional process can give rise to a text that is incapable of achieving acceptance within the relevant country's borders. It argues that local context is the most important factor that should be considered if a constitution is to have any chance of acquiring some form of internal legitimacy in the future. The chapter begins by defining constitutional legitimacy and by arguing that although the 2006 Constitution has been endorsed by the international community, it was essentially dead on arrival in Iraq. It presents two case studies, to explain how this situation was brought about. The first shows how the drafters' lack of understanding of Iraq's institutional context led to the collapse of its system of parliamentary oversight under the 2006 Constitution, while the second shows how the constitutional drafters (and the internationals who advised and guided the constitutional process) had misjudged the relative popularity of the parties that were allowed to control the drafting process and that dictated the final text's content. Finally, the chapter attempts define the meaning of “local context” and identify its different components, particularly with a view to encouraging greater attention and understanding of local considerations and interests by all parties involved in a constitutional process in the future.

Trends and Influences in the History of Australian Drug Legislation

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Manderson
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Illicit Drug ◽  
Illicit Drug Use ◽  
International Community ◽  
Drug Control ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
Drug Legislation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Independent Assessment

In this article the author briefly traces some features in the emergence in Australia of legislation controlling “dangerous drugs” such as opium, morphine, cocaine and heroin from 1900 to 1950. It is argued that, in common with other similar countries, the first laws prohibiting the non-medical use of drugs were enacted as a symptom of anti-Chinese racism and not out of any concern for the health of users. It is further argued that later laws, which built upon that precedent, developed not through any independent assessment of the drug problem in Australia but rather in response to pressure from the international community. Australia's unthinking acceptance of the growing U.S.-led international consensus relating to “dangerous drugs” influenced legislation, policy and attitudes to illicit drug use. The structure of drug control which emerged incorporated and promoted the fears, values and solutions of other societies without any assessment of their validity or appropriateness.

The International Community's Responsibility to Protect

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Glanville
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Security Council ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Military Intervention ◽  
International Community ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Regional Organisations

AbstractThe concept of the responsibility to protect (R2P) holds that not only do sovereign states have a responsibility to protect their populations, but so too does the international community. The international community is said to be responsible for encouraging and assisting states to protect and also for taking collective action to enforce the protection of populations in instances where states fail to carry out their obligations. This idea that the international community itself bears not merely a right but a responsibility to protect, through military intervention if necessary, is perhaps the most novel aspect of the R2P concept, and it would seem to have extraordinary implications. Yet it remains largely under-examined. In this article, I consider how the notion that the international community bears a responsibility to protect might be fruitfully understood and conceptualised. After briefly outlining from where this idea has emerged, I consider two interrelated questions: What kind of responsibility is it – moral, legal, or political, or some combination of the three? And who in particular bears the responsibility – the international community broadly speaking, particular international institutions such as the Security Council, regional organisations, or individual states?

scholarly journals “To Restore the Soul of America”: How Domestic Anti-Racism Might Fuel Global Anti-Racism

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 63-68
Author(s):  
H. Timothy Lovelace
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Moral Leadership ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
At Home

On November 7, 2020, President Joe Biden proclaimed that his administration would “restore the soul of America.” He declared that U.S. voters had given him a mandate “to achieve racial justice and root out systemic racism in this country,” and that he plans to use the nation's restored moral leadership to create international consensus around U.S. values and urge foreign nations and intergovernmental institutions to adopt anti-racist agendas. To be sure, Biden's commitment to ending systemic racism is rooted in troubling notions of U.S. exceptionalism and invokes an unfounded anti-racist nostalgia. We should never “restore” America's racial past. Nevertheless, Biden's commitment is, in many ways, refreshing and raises a crucial and productive question: how might the United States recalibrate the international legal order and address systemic racism within Biden's framework? One straightforward and pragmatic answer emerges: the Biden administration should live up to the standards of those who inspired his campaign's mission. In other words, truly improving the racial order at home might be a viable way to advance anti-racism abroad, including through existing international institutions.

scholarly journals How To Start A War: Eight Cases of Strategic Provocation

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 66 ◽  
Author(s):  
JD Maddox
Keyword(s):  
International Institutions ◽  
International Community ◽  
Basic Pattern ◽  
Self Defense

A leader intent on starting a war must develop a compelling narrative for their domestic constituency and the international community.  For some, strategic provocation – defined here as the use of deceptive tactics to instigate violence against one's own state – has been a reliable means of initiating war under the guise of self-defense. Eight cases of strategic provocation reveal a basic pattern of its use, and some possibly unwelcome truths about state leaders' methods.  As international institutions increasingly scrutinize states' interventionist agendas, the use of deceptive narratives is likely to continue. Despite known indicators of strategic provocation operations, warning of such operations has not typically prevented warfare.

Selfless Intervention

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-63
Author(s):  
Cedric Ryngaert
Keyword(s):  
International Institutions ◽  
International Community ◽  
Corrective Justice ◽  
Unilateral Action ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Common Interests

This chapter fleshes out how unilateral, ‘extraterritorial’ action could be justifiable. The starting point of the analysis is that, in light of institutional failures to protect common interests adequately, unilateral action may at times be necessary to dispense global corrective justice. The author ascertains whether there is such a thing as an ‘international community’, and whether individual states rather than international institutions can be entrusted with ‘selfless’ jurisdictional powers. While acknowledging the risk of self-serving behaviour, the author is inclined to support benevolent unilateralism as the alternative—no action—may be worse. He argues that the justification of such unilateralism should be sought in a reinterpretation of the notion of sovereignty, as well as in the substantive values supposedly furthered by unilateral action.

Justice and Recognizing the Rights of States

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 874-900
Author(s):  
Steve Viner
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
International Community ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
International Laws ◽  
State Rights

In this article, I reject Allen Buchanan's justice-based account of recognizing states as legitimate states in an international community of states. I argue that his account can fail to implement justice and that it does not properly consider the nature or importance of international law. After rejecting Buchanan's approach, I offer my account. My account calls for the unbundling of state rights, and it allows each state right to be subject to moral and legal scrutiny. My unbundling account subjects the rights of states to morally justified international laws, and it supports the conclusion that sovereignty and legitimacy should be seen in degrees. It also provides a framework for thinking about how, why and when, morally speaking, international institutions should have the power to grant or withhold legal rights from states.

scholarly journals The Importance of Diplomacy

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 103-114
Author(s):  
Dalma Nemeskéri ◽  
Iván Zádori
Keyword(s):  
International Institutions ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
International Community ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Nation ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Republic Of China ◽  
The Republic

After the de facto separation of China in 1949, the international community was divided on the issue which government represents the Chinese nation as a whole. Until the 1970s the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan maintained its seat in the UN, and formal ties to a significant number of countries. However, by the end of this decade, in 1980, Taipei government was left with merely 22 diplomatic allies. Our article focuses on the position of Taiwan after this shift, examining the regime’s perception of the effects of recognition and derecognition. As the Taipei government has put significant efforts into the preservation (and expansion) of diplomatic relations with states that are not considered globally influential, we examined what possible effects and consequences these ties can have on the international legal status of the entity. It has to be noted that for this purpose, only the official relations, and diplomatic allies of the ROC were considered. After describing the diplomatic activities of Taiwan, and the shifts in the number of its diplomatic allies (between 1988–2020), we found three main areas which are positively affected by these ties. They provide basis for the regime’s claim to sovereignty and statehood, and they enhance Taiwanese presence in international institutions (and indicate the unresolved nature of the entity’s international legal status). Most importantly, they help to maintain the international nature of the cross-strait conflict and contribute to preserve the status quo.

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