The real bond between the United States and Europe is the values we share: democracy, individual freedom, human rights and the Rule of Law.
Statement of 8 European leaders in support of USA 30 Jan
The German translation of Rule of Law is Rechtsstaatlichkeit. This suggests a meaning slightly different from the anglo-Saxon common law tradition, and one that poses the question of the state as central.
So the present battle over Iraq is also a battle about what the international rule of law means. Especially when there is no global state.
In disputed borderline cases like this, should the Security Council vote on the "balance of probabilities" or on the basis of "beyond reasonable doubt". Most states dissemble and conceal their secrets. Israel did in getting nuclear weapons. The UK fooled the Americans into sharing their hydrogen bomb technology by faking a hydrogen bomb explosion.
On the other hand in a world in which there is not an existing global state, is 'might is right' not an indispensible part of realpolitik? The US is being a bully, but after Sept 11 will inevitably have a new agenda which will not tolerate any suspicion of a threat to its safety.
A Security Council resolution will be a fig leaf for the much vautned inevitability of Bush's intentions. But the wording may be quoted in decades to come as significant in shaping the drive to a world state.
A Google search shows that the "Rule of Law" is being used as a concept both by lawyers opposed to US arbitrary hegemonism and by right wing libertarians, eager to roll out an agenda of liberal democracy not just in Iraq but the whole of the middle east.
This is a highly significant arena of struggle.
Most of the population of the world are unconvinced of the clear justice of an attack on Iraq.
It looks like the Security Council will decline to veto the US action on evaluation of evidence "on the balance of probabilities". That is very different from "beyond reasonable doubt."
Chris Burford
London
