When the global order fails human rights

OLD HIERARCHIES OF POWER

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IRANIAN refugees stand with their belongings at a border checkpoint in the southern Armenian town of Meghri, amid the Middle East war.

(KAREN MINASYAN AFP)

"HISTORY has a way of returning to unfinished arguments." The 20th century closed with the collapse of colonial empires and the triumphant declaration that the world had entered an era governed by international law, sovereign equality and human rights. Yet in the first quarter of the 21st century, the reality confronting much of the Global South suggests that the old hierarchies of power have not disappeared. They have merely changed form.

From the sanctions imposed on Iran to the economic and political pressure applied to Venezuela, and the enduring dispossession experienced by the people of Palestine, the world is witnessing a pattern that demands sober reflection, a geopolitical order in which the sovereignty of some states is treated as conditional, while the power of others is treated as unquestionable.

The question confronting humanity is not simply whether these policies are effective, it is whether they are just.

To understand the tensions of our present moment, we must examine the architecture of power that has shaped international relations since the end of the Cold War.

The US emerged from that era as the world’s most dominant political, military and economic force. Its alliances, most notably with Israel, became pillars of a global security order designed to protect strategic interests and maintain regional influence.

Supporters of this order argue that it has helped prevent largescale wars and protect democratic values.

Critics, particularly in the Global South, see something different, a system in which international rules are applied unevenly.

When powerful states invoke international law selectively, the credibility of that law itself begins to erode.