Is the rule of law possible in geopolitics?

Is the rule of law possible in geopolitics?


Rozov N.S.,

Institute of Philosophy and Law, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia; Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Russia, nrozov@gmail.com


elibrary_id: 72298 | ORCID: 0000-0003-2362-541X | RESEARCHER_ID: K-5447-2017

Article received: 2022.08.22. Accepted: 2022.11.03


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2023.01.12
EDN: DFEQVE

Rubric: DIXI!

For citation:

Rozov N.S. Is the rule of law possible in geopolitics? – Polis. Political Studies. 2023. No. 1. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2023.01.12. EDN: DFEQVE



Abstract

The author considers the type of future world order, which best corresponds to modern humanistic values and legal principles, as well as the main obstacles and possible ways to implement it. The article is deliberately structured as a political-philosophical and debatable one; there are no special empirical* substantiations and detailed theorizing in it. The article considers how the notorious “anarchy” of international relations can be restricted on consistent legal grounds, as is required by the acuteness and scale of contemporary conflicts. The main milestones for the promotion of law ideas in matters of war and peace with special attention to the contribution of Russian international lawyers of the second half of the nineteenth – early twentieth centuries are presented. The author shows why the current institutions (headed by the UN Security Council) fail to cope with the urgent tasks of war prevention, and reviews the main reform projects, most of which have not been implemented. The main thesis is that geopolitics (the sphere of war and peace, territorial disputes) should be regulated by a system of international courts under the aegis of the UN, the enforceability of whose verdicts can and should be ensured by a coalition of leading global and regional powers. In this case, diplomacy and military, coercive actions in the international arena will lose their current primacy in geopolitics. They will assume an auxiliary role in relation to the law, to the activities and verdicts of an authoritative court (including in the sphere of sanctions, reparations, force actions). The main obstacles to the establishment of such an order are considered, as well as the ways to overcome them and the stages of progress towards the establishment of the rule of law in global and regional geopolitics.

Keywords
geopolitics, rule of law, international law, international court, legal world order, UN Security Council, conflict resolution, humane orders.


References

Afoaku, O.G., & Ukaga, O. (2001). United Nations Security Council reform: a critical analysis of enlargement options. Journal of Third World Studies, 18(2), 149-169.

Babic, J., & Bojanik, P. (2013). World governance. Do we need it, is it possible, what could it (all) mean? Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 360 p.

Bielen, S. (2021). Turbulence in the post-Cold War era. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. 237 p. https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323553205

Blum, Y. (2005). Proposals for UN Security Council reform. The American Journal of International Law, 99(3), 632 649. https://doi.org/10.2307/1602295

Buchanan, A. (2018). Institutionalizing the just war. Oxford: University Press. 334 p.

Buchanan, A., & Keohane, R.L. (2004). The preventive use of force: a cosmopolitan institutional proposal. Ethics and International Affairs, 18(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.2004.tb00447.x

Friedman, U. (2018). UN secretary-general: American power is in decline, the world is ‘in pieces’. The Atlantic, September, 13. URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/09/antonio-guterresunited-nations/570130 (accessed 12.11.2022).

Hartwig, R. (2008). Squaring the circle. A regional/economic proposal for reform of the United Nations Security Council. In V. Weyel (Ed.), The Quest for Regional Representation Reforming the United Nations Security Council. Critical currents, Occasional Paper. Series, 4 (pp. 41-75). Uppsala: Dag Hammarskjold Foundation. http://www.daghammarskjold.se/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/cc4_web.pdf

Krasner, S.D. (2000). International law and international relations: together, apart, together? Chicago Journal of International Law, 1(1), Article 10. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cjil/vol1/iss1/10

Martini, E. (2009). UN Security Council reform. Current developments. IAI0926. Istituto Affari Internazionali, 11.11.2009. https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/iai0926.pdf

Menon, Sh. (2022). Nobody wants the current world order. How all the major powers – even the United States – became revisionists. Foreign Affairs, August 3. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/nobody-wantscurrent-world-order

Morris, J. (2000). UN Security Council reform: a counsel for the 21st century. Security Dialogue, 31(3), 265-277. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010600031003002

Nadin, P. (2014). UN Security Council reform. United Nation University, May, 1. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315687254

Schwartzberg, J.E. (2013). Transforming the United Nations system. Designs for a workable world. United Nations University Press. 460 p.

Thibault, J.-F. (2020). The UN Security Council isn’t working. Will it ever be completely reformed? The Conversation, June 21. https://theconversation.com/the-un-security-council-isnt-working-will-it-ever-becompletely-reformed-141109

Thompson, Sh.K., Landgren, K., & Romita, P. (2022) The United Nations in hindsight: challenging the power of the security council veto. Just Security, April 28. https://www.justsecurity.org/81294/the-unitednations-in-hindsight-challenging-the-power-of-the-security-council-veto

Vinx, L. (2007). Institutionalizing the just war? A critical comment on Buchanan. Trames, 11(4), 382-402. https://www.kirj.ee/public/trames/trames-2007-4-4.pdf

Wendt, A. (1992). Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics. International Organization, 46(2), 391-425. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818300027764

 

Collins, R. (2015). Macrohistory: essays in sociology of the long run. (Russ. ed.: Collins R. Makroistoriya: ocherki sotsiologii bol’shoi dlitel’nosti. Moscow: URSS. 504 p.).

Golovanov, E.V. (2011). Opportunities for UN Security Council reform. Political Expertise: Political Expertise Journal, 7(2), 165-174. (In Russ.)

Greenspan, A. (2010). The age of turbulence: adventures in a new world. (Russ. ed.: Greenspan, A. Ehpokha potryasenii. Problemy i perspektivy mirovoi finansovoi sistemy. Moscow: United Press. 550 p.).

Grotius, H. (2012). On the law of war and peace. (Russ. ed.: Grotius, H. O prave voiny i mira. Moscow: Ladomir. 870 p.).

Kamarovskii, L.A. (1881). O mezhdunarodnom sude [About the International Court]. Moscow: Typography T. Malinskogo. 542 p. https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000199_000009_003612007

Kant, I. (1994). Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltburgerlicher Absicht. (Russ. ed.: Kant, I. Ideya vseobshchei istorii vo vsemirno-grazhdanskom plane. In Kant I. Collected works in 8 vol. Vol. 8 (pp. 12-28). Moscow: Choro Publishing House).

Modelski, G. (2003). Long cycles in world politics: basic concepts. (Russ. ed.: Modelski. G. Ob”yasnenie dolgikh tsiklov v mirovoi politike: osnovnye ponyatiya. In N.S. Rozov (Ed.). Voyna i geopolitika. Almanah “Vremya mira”, vyp. 3 (pp. 455-485). Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk State University Press).

Rozov, N.S. (2016). Geopolitics as a science: to cancel or to develop. Politeia, 3, 130-148. (In Russ).

Rozov, N.S. (2019a). Epochs of turbulence and ways to overcome them. Politeia, 1, 81-96. (In Russ). https://doi.org/10.30570/2078-5089-2019-92-1-81-96

Rozov, N.S. (2019b). Anthroprostasia (protection of a human) is the ethical core of humanism. Ethical Thought, 19(1), 141-156. (In Russ). https://doi.org/10.21146/2074-4870-2019-19-1-141-156

Sayamov, Yu.N. (2017). The Hague Conferences 1899, 1907. Russia and the Сontemporary World, 3, 33-46. (In Russ).

Rozov, N.S. (Ed.). (2003). Voyna i geopolitika. Almanah “Vremya mira” [War and geopolitics. The almanac “Time of Peace”]. Issue 3. Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk State University Press. 571 p.

Content No. 1, 2023

See also:


Pastukhov V.B.,
The demon of law. Russian law as escaping reality. – Polis. Political Studies. 2011. No2

Troitskaya O.V.,
Right of Nations to Self-Determination: Evolution of Concept and Practices. – Polis. Political Studies. 2015. No6

Sungurov A.Yu.,
Human rights as subject of political science and as interdisciplinary conception. – Polis. Political Studies. 2010. No6

Verlaine M., Shashkova A.V., Kudryashova E.V.,
Amendments to Russian Constitution and International Institutions Decisions: EAEU Prospective. – Polis. Political Studies. 2020. No5

Glushkova S.I.,
Individual, group, collective and general rights under the conditions of multiculturalism. – Polis. Political Studies. 2010. No6

 
 

Archive

   2024      2023      2022      2021   
   2020      2019      2018      2017      2016   
   2015      2014      2013      2012      2011   
   2010      2009      2008      2007      2006   
   2005      2004      2003      2002      2001   
   2000      1999      1998      1997      1996   
   1995      1994      1993      1992      1991