Force-based international order: Here’s how the US is remaking world politics |
The US military intervention in Venezuela to kidnap President Maduro was a gross violation of the UN Charter. Nothing justifies this blatant flouting of international law. The arguments given by the US to justify its aggression do not stand up to scrutiny.
The Western Hemisphere consists of several sovereign countries that are members of the UN. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela either signed the 1942 Declaration by United nations or were among the original members which signed the UN Charter in 1945.
The UN Charter is based on the sovereign equality of nations and non-interference in their internal affairs, and must be the basis of relations between the US and Latin America.
The US has invoked the Monroe Doctrine in its National Security Strategy 2025 document to assert and legitimise its past hegemony over the Americas. A ‘Trump Corollary’ has been added to infuse the Monroe Doctrine with Trump’s thinking (much like Xi Jinping’s Thought being incorporated in the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party). By this revived imperialistic thinking, the US is repudiating the UN Charter.
By stating “This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States,” US Secretary of State Rubio is enunciating a highly contentious proposition.
Russia has parallel strategic concerns about the relentless expansion of NATO towards its borders and Europe being used as an American base of operations, concerns that the US has ignored. By this logic, China too could oppose the western Pacific becoming a US base of operations. Would the US be prepared to accept this logic?
When Rubio adds “We’ve seen how our adversaries all over the world are exploiting and extracting resources from Africa, from every other country” and claims this is not going to happen in the Western Hemisphere under Trump, he is enunciating another highly disputable proposition.
The US itself is now eyeing Africa’s critical raw materials and is developing political and investment strategies to extract them on an urgent........