MISSING AN OPPORTUNITY FOR INTERNATIONAL ORDER

by

Andrew Bard Schmookler

As the smoke rises above the ancient Croatian city of Dubrovnik, from fires ignited by Serbian shells, the dream of a truly new world order is dissipating. As if blind to the present moment's unprecedented opportunity for creating new structures of international order and justice, the world community has allowed the old and well-worn pattern of war and conquest to repeat itself. What we cannot envision, we are unlikely to create. Can we not envision a world where the international community can enforce certain rules of conduct on its members, assuring that justice and not brute force will resolve conflict? The ongoing conflict among the nationalities of Yugoslavia has challenged the world, and Europe in particular, to establish whether might makes right, whether in particular the right of a people to choose its own destiny will depend on its having the armed might to repel its neighbor's predations. The plague of war and the rule of power may seem a chronic disease of humanity, but the future need not be just like the past. It is the task of our imagination to grasp those moments when history might be turned in a new direction. At this moment --with the cold war at last over, with democracy victorious and spreading, with the coup failed in the Soviet Union, with the great powers cognizant of their overriding common interests-- is not an order governed by justice even now within our conceivable grasp? At least, is not the time ripe in Europe for the germ of such a global order to take root? And at this moment --with the Soviet empire splintering, with nationalistic aspirations rising, with chances for ethnic strife growing-- is not the only prudent way of providing for future security to work vigorously toward such an order? It is less than a year since the world community rallied its forces to reverse the Iraqi aggression into Kuwait, saying that this was the "defining moment" of the post-cold-war world. But just what is it that was defined? Evidently the world so defined will allow an imperialist Serbia to suppress --with brutal force of arms-- democratic Croatia's aspirations for autonomy. An American Assistant Secretary of State explains that we can do nothing to make peace unless the parties themselves all want us to. Evidently, if the Serbians want the fate of Croatia to be determined by Serbian tanks, rather than by any higher principles, there is nothing we can do. I don't recall, however, that the Iraqis invited us to come in and settle their dispute with the Kuwaitis. When the world's oil lifeline was at stake, the nations of the West sent significant forces to confront a dangerous military power. Now, when all that's at stake is the right of self-determination, and the resolution of disputes by peaceful means --and when the aggressor commands a tiny force in the midst of an unprecedently coherent continent-- not even a gunboat has been sent. (At any point, this war could have been swiftly ended with one aircraft carrier, sitting offshore in the Adriatic Sea, sent under multilateral auspices along with the announcement, "Whoever violates this ceasefire will be punished from the air." The European Community's efforts, though well-intentioned, have been resolutely toothless. Even a tiny aggressor, if it is determined enough, cannot be deterred by mere words with no force to back them up. In domestic society, it may not always be easy or convenient to enforce justice, but we know that our domestic tranquity requires that we be ready, collectively, to wield more than exhortations. Was that "new world order" we heard so much about only to protect already established sovereign nations, like Kuwait, while leaving nationalities within previously established boundaries at the mercy of the strongest army any one of the factions can command? The French and Spanish, we hear, have been loath to deploy outside forces to protect the Croatians because they each have restive peoples --e.g. the Corsicans and the Basques-- within their borders. But in the truly new order that we should be envisioning, states would be safe enough to let go of those old habits of thought that made domination seem necessary. (We need to control our little neighbors lest they become an enclave for our bigger enemies.) These old habits only perpetuate the old, unending pattern of resentment and conflict. In today's world, the self-determination of peoples is often in conflict with the sanctity of national sovereignty. But what kind of order is it that would forbid Iraq's annexation of Kuwait, but would "grandfather" in all the conquests of earlier times? By itself, allowing the splintering of states can imperil the international peace. We don't want to "Balkanize" the world, multiplying the number of possible capitals for hatreds to be nursed and for plans of war to be hatched. But if this breaking up of those nations that have been held together by force is combined with the institution of an overarching international system of order and security, granting the self-determination of peoples can be an indispensable part of achieving that "just and lasting peace" of which we have so long dreamed. It is said that the Yugoslavian tragedy is a cautionary tale of the disaster that might happen, on a far larger scale, in the Soviet Union. By the same token, the Yugoslavian situation affords a comparatively cheap and easy opportunity to establish a constructive precedent for the principles (democratic self-determination) and methods (arbitration, international peace-keeping forces) that should govern the unfolding of nationalism in the new Europe. Regrettably, the great powers have persisted in seeing the battle in Yugoslavia as but a minor, local matter, one for which it is not worth sacrificing short-term comforts to resolve. It is said that this lamentable bloodshed between Yugoslavian nationalities marks the first outbreak of war on the European continent since World War II killed tens of millions a half century ago. Regrettably, in their shortsighted inability to envision either the dangers or the opportunities, we are missing a chance to help see to it that this war is Europe's last.