The Sovereignty Paradox! Myanmar Issue, United States, Westphalian Sovereignty, Hegemonic Sovereignty

 

The Sovereignty Paradox! Myanmar Issue, United States, Westphalian Sovereignty, Hegemonic Sovereignty

The Sovereignty Paradox! Myanmar Issue, United States,
Westphalian Sovereignty, Hegemonic Sovereignty

This paradox has recently come under renewed discussion in the Myanmar issue. Using which the United States is also gaining legitimacy for its actions. You know, the ultimate authority of a state over its own territory is called Westphalian Sovereignty. That is, no other state can interfere in the internal society, economy, and politics of a state. A state, whether large or small/rich or poor, will retain its authority over certain borders or territories and the interference of another state in the internal affairs of one state will be considered a violation of international law.

The Treaty of Westphalia was signed in 1848 to end the 30-year war between the European countries. One of the conditions of this agreement is that each country will not interfere in the sovereignty of another country. The term Westphalian Sovereignty comes from this idea.

Now this Westphalian Sovereignty is not legitimizing the United States to interfere in the politics of any other country. Similarly, according to Westphalian sovereignty, US intervention in the politics of various Third World countries, including Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, was completely illegal and against international law. But wouldn't the United States interfere in the politics of other countries to protect its own interests?

To legitimize our legitimize this illegal intervention, the United States has come up with another new term as opposed to Westphalian Sovereignty. Named "Hegemonic Sovereignty".

This hegemonic sovereignty means that in any country in the world where there is no democracy or human rights are violated, the United States should intervene in the politics of that country to restore democracy and establish so-called human rights, and that is legal. According to this Hegemonic Sovereignty, the fall of Gaddafi in Libya by the United States, the war against Saddam in Iraq, the legitimacy of the NATO alliance attack in Afghanistan. Just put a tag that we have interfered in the establishment of democracy and human rights!

In contrast to this Westphalian Sovereignty in today's world, Hegemonic Sovereignty is getting stronger day by day and the United States is able to prove its naked intervention in the outside world as legitimacy. You will find the best example of this in Andrew Bachchiev's book 'The Limits Of Power'. In this book, Andrew Buckwich, an American critic who is an American, points out five major features of the American state system. Features are,

1) America's world domination in world politics must be considered beneficial. That is, America's purpose is to do good to others.

2) It must be assumed that any lapse in US leadership in the world will lead to global chaos. Without the leadership of the United States or without the leadership of the United States in world politics, the Americans think that there will be anarchy in the world.

3) That is why the United States thinks that it is its responsibility to establish world democracy and it is justifiable to use military force in different countries.

4) In order to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries, it is necessary to increase the US military power and, if necessary, to carry out US military operations in more than one region.

5) America's foreign diplomacy and politics will be aggressive and its only goal is to defeat any power.

You will find the similarities of the above two features of Andrew Bachchiv with American foreign policy of the last two decades.