![]() ![]() But no state has the authority to make its own determinations on these matters and to act as it chooses the U.S. and Britain feel threatened, they can do the same. If Iraq’s neighbors feel threatened, they can approach the Security Council to authorize appropriate measures to respond to the threat. There are legitimate ways to react to the many threats to world peace. The only exception is Article 51, which permits the “right of individual or collective self-defense” against “armed attack…until the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.” Apart from these exceptions, member states “shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force.” The Charter states that “The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression, and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42,” which detail the preferred “measures not involving the use of armed force” and permit the Security Council to take further action if it finds such measures inadequate. Constitution, “the supreme law of the land.” ![]() The relevant legal framework is formulated in the Charter of the United Nations, a “solemn treaty” recognized as the foundation of international law and world order, and under the U.S. and UK should act in accord with their laws and treaty obligations. But discussion kept within rigid bounds that excluded the obvious answer: the U.S. True, many words flowed, and there was dispute about how to proceed. The most interesting feature of the debate over the Iraq crisis is that it never took place. But first, let’s consider its application in the current crisis. Washington and London declared Iraq a “rogue state,” a threat to its neighbors and to the entire world, an “outlaw nation” led by a reincarnation of Hitler who must be contained by the guardians of world order, the United States and its British “junior partner,” to adopt the term ruefully employed by the British foreign office half a century ago. The current Iraq crisis is only the latest example. The concept of “rogue state” plays a pre-eminent role today in policy planning and analysis. Rogue States Noam Chomsky Z Magazine, April, 1998 ![]()
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