@Olivier5,
Olivier5 wrote:
The UN and its set of rules saved mankind's skin during the cold war.
How do you figure that?
Quote:After the cold war, once the US became the sole superpower, it decided to make an illegal war in Iraq and the UN was undermined big time as a result. Because if the top dog does not play by the rules, why should anybody else?
When was the last legal war, and what war ever didn't transpire because some international body deemed it illegal?
The Big Dog creates its own rules. Whether or not this is proper, it is the way it always has been and always will be. The Star Trekian notion of a
World Government is as far away in time as warp drives and transporters. Even if the US was willing to subject itself to governance by an overarching international body, China won't be anytime soon and neither will Russia. In fact, none of the nations possessing nuclear weapons are prepared to give up that advantage. The only nations who might entertain such an idea are the ones who are no trouble to anyone and whose governments are decent to its people: Not a huge number of countries that fit that bill.
Quote:So now it's Crimea and nobody moves. Next time where? The UN was treated as some old junk from the cold war, and thrown under the bus. Now that the cold war is back, what tool do we use to keep it cold?
I don't agree that the Cold War is back. Russia is not in a position to engage in the sort of adventurism the Soviet Union was fond of, doesn't have a system of government that is, essentially, a polar opposite of the Western nations, and no aspirations or capability to dominate the entire globe. Putin's a dangerous thug with a nuclear arsenal but I can't imagine that he has any misconceptions about the results of Russia getting into a Hot War with the West, Of course anything is possible and men like Putin have been misjudged and under-estimated in the past, but any desire he has to return to the "glory days" of the Soviet Union has to be limited to sessions in his bathroom with a jar of vaseline and a box of tissues. He certainly wishes to expand his countries influence within the region and is quite capable of playing games with other unaligned former USSR satellites but attempting such shenanigans with any of them that are now members of NATO would be an incredible risk that I doubt he will take unless and until he is very sure the West (and NATO) has become totally feckless and self-absorbed. Granted, this may actually be the case right now, but the West's response (or lack thereof) to the annexation of Crimea isn't proof positive of it.