Exactly 400 years ago in 1625 a Dutch jurist published a treatise entitled On the Law of War and Peace, in which he laid out a theory of just war coupled with the duties and responsibilities of nations. It was the beginning of the concept of international law which saw a major success in the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact when nearly every nation agreed that wars of aggression should be illegal.
Obviously, Hitler didn’t see the world in that way as neither did Stalin in spite of the 1945 UN Charter. As the number of countries increased threefold, claims against other nations’ national territories plummeted. Even the US was force to make unfounded claims to justify its invasion of Iraq in 2003. That has changed.
In their Foreign Affairs article, scholars Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro examine how this has been upended. Now we have a President who can threaten to invade Panama and Greenland, and although he hasn’t, by speaking such, the unthinkable becomes thinkable when uttered. It is now reflected in domestic policy as well with the Supreme Court permitting deportations to places like South Sudan and Congress ready to vote on a budget to destroy health care and the social safety net.
Prayer for the Day
As did the Psalmist, we cry to you, O God,
For we see how power is used against us;
Looking to the heavens, we wait for you, O Lord,
For we feel so helpless when faced with injustice.
But in our hearts we know that it is us who must act,
With courage and the strength derived from you.
In the name of the One who gives us strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
You don’t want to just throw up your hands and give up on the international legal norms that have forestalled massive wars and protected individual rights. But I think we are not quite thinking through the kinds of compromises that we will need to make if we are to stop the most dangerous trend lines that we’re seeing
Monica Hakimi, international law scholar, Columbia University
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to take a vote that would take healthcare away from 16 million Americans. They are not scheduled to hear from any of those people.
Rev. William Barber, organizer of Moral Mondays in the Capitol Rotunda
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute.
Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy
Proverbs 31: 8-9