World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

One should not be overly optimistic, but US and Russian diplomats have announced a one-week cessation of hostilities that appears to have the support of several (but not all) of the rebel forces in Syria.  The civil war in Syria, which has been going on since 2011, has been an unmitigated humanitarian disaster with over 350,000 people killed–mostly civilians.  The cease-fire does not include any mention of an outline for a peace agreement, the most critical element of which will be the status of current President Assad who the Russians support and the Americans oppose.  One hopes that humanitarian assistance can flow into Syria during the cease-fire and that further steps toward peace can be articulated.

Moves toward independence have been building for several years in the Spanish region of Catalonia, and a major protest in favor of secession from Spain was held yesterday.  The movement for independence comes from a sense among Catalans that Spain takes more economically from the region than it returns, as well as from the sense among Catalans that they are genuinely different from Spaniards as a whole.  However, Spain’s constitution does not permit secession (similar to the US constitution) and any such move would likely be greeted with armed force to repress the “rebellion.”

There is an argument being made in the current US presidential campaign which deserves close analysis:  the claim that the US should have “taken” the oil in Iraq after it invaded the country in 2003.  Those who make the argument suggest that is war “anything is legal.”  Historically, there was always a “right of conquest” which seems to be the underlying assumption of the assertion.  However, that right is abrogated by any country which signs the United Nations Charter which states in its preamble: “to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest”.  It may be the case that the candidate making the argument wishes the withdraw the US from the United Nations, but until that event occurs, the US has no right to seize any resource through war.