World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

US President Obama has completed a 10-year military agreement with the Philippines.  The agreement does not include any leases on military bases (a sore subject for the former US colony), but there is little doubt that the American presence in the region will be unmistakable.  The agreement is part of Obama’s “pivot” from Europe to Asia, and reflects the anxiety of many of the countries in Southeast Asia about the growing Chinese naval power.  The Chinese clearly are not pleased about the agreement, but it reflects the balance of power theory in action.

Thirty-five distinguished jurists in international law have published a  letter to the British newspaper, The Guardian, arguing that the United Nations has the authority to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Syria even if the government of Syria does not give its consent to such aid.  The letter argues that 9.3 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, and that the UN’s unwillingness to provide aid reflects “an overly cautious interpretation of international humanitarian law.”  I doubt that the UN will follow this advice, but the argument is a powerful challenge to the traditional conception of state sovereignty, and it extends the logic of the responsibility to protect.

US Secretary of State Kerry, in remarks before the Trilateral Commission, used language rarely used by US diplomats to describe a possible outcome to the collapse of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.  Referring to the horrific distribution of power in South Africa where a small minority of whites once ruled over the black majority, Kerry said that the failure of the two-state solution to could lead to a situation where the Israelis would have to rule over the larger population of Palestinians.  If a unitary state emerged, Israelis might have to create two classes of citizens in order to preserve the essential nature of Israel as a Jewish state. Such language reflects the frustration of a sustained, but failed, attempt to broker a peace agreement.