The corrupted software of international relations

If you want to understand why the US attacked Venezuela late last week and captured its president, Nicholas Maduro, and took him to New York to try him under American domestic law, there is no point in consulting a book on international law or the UN charter.

- Happymon Jacob

They have become passé. Here’s what I suggest: Take a look at any standard software licence and the various subscription plans it mentions. In the eyes of Washington, and the current American president, Donald Trump, the so-called rules-based international order is no longer a set of universal laws; it's tiered subscription model. Here’s how the model works.

For countries like India, there isa mandatory basic plan. They must follow every line of the code regarding sanctions, war and peace, trade, and sovereignty, or you face a system crash that can result in 50% tariffs and other economic and political consequences. But for the US, international law is sort of a “premium enterprise account” that is only available to the service provider, because it led the team that wrote itsome 81 years ago. Its account comes with the exclusive right to temporarily or permanently cancel the terms of service whenever they become an inconvenience to the service provider. As for Venezuela, it has been put in the blacklisted category. In the service provider's eyes, Caracas isn'ta user of the software called the international order; itis malware —a narco-State virus. Anda system wipe is justified.

Last Saturday, the US moved from imposing simple firewalls to an active “delete command”, launching Operation Absolute Resolve to remove a sovereign head of State with force, giving the excuse of law enforcement.

By launching the operation with no UN Security Council (UNSC) authorisation, the US has effectively signalled to Global South countries that the developer remains free to hack the system at will, asit did on Saturday. And thereisno ombudsman to turn to, unfortunately.