By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
Those explaining the US Government’s violation of the sovereignty of Venezuela from the prism of international law, are still observing international politics from moralistic and ideal prisms. Unfortunately, morality and idealism are far insufficient, as both do not provide nuanced, contextual, and realistic behaviour of state at the international arena, including what informs these behaviours.
International politics is an arena of power. The concept of collective aggression has shown to be inadequate in addressing specific scenarios just as the case in point. This is because, sovereign states are the most powerful entity in the world. International Governmental Organisations like the UN, are not superintending over sovereign states. Instead, sovereign states are suprientending over it.
It is, therefore, imperative to observe that powerful sovereign states are guided by their national interests. Russia invaded Ukraine because of its national interest. China maintains dominance over the politics of Hong-Kong and Taiwan because of its national interests. Israel is stampeding Palestine sovereignty because of its national interests. The US has invaded Venezuela, again, because of its national interests. This is not about President Trump, as no president of the US in recent memory has failed to invade a sovereign country under one guise or another. In the end, it comes down to the same thing: for every powerful country, its national interests are superior to international law or morals or such ideals like “world peace.”
There is no morality, and there is no law capable of stopping a powerful or hegemon sovereign from executing its bid, except it has no pending national interests on the matter.
This is why Africans must wake up because no one is coming to save anyone. No powerful country plays “political folly” just because it is moral, correct, or upright. If there is nothing in it for them, and if it is not harmful to them, they are not concerned. This was captured in a way of summary by German statesman and father of modern Germany, Otto Von Bismarck, when he said that “it is unworthy of a great state to fight for what does not concern its national interests”.
However, I must admit that with this US invasion of Venezuela, there are chances that we will see more invasions specifically by countries aligned to the US. In consequence, further deepening security concerns and development crises for the unfortunate weak countries. Sadly, this is not an issue of concern to powerful States.
In the final analysis, as Thrasymachus posited, “Might is right and justice is the interest of the stronger party.”
