WORLD ORDER - Part 1 - Nature & Development

Defining World Order and Its Necessity

• World order is defined as the complex framework of relationships, rules, and institutions that structure interactions between sovereign states. It encompasses the mechanisms for preventing, managing, and resolving conflicts, as well as the structures for cooperation on mutual challenges.

• It is not a singular entity or treaty but the aggregate of all legal and non-legal mechanisms that foster predictability and stability within international relations.

• The fundamental need for world order arises from the lack of a global government. Unlike domestic legal systems where a state possesses the power to enforce laws against individuals, international law operates primarily on the basis of states consenting to be bound and participating in voluntary cooperation.

• World order serves to mitigate several critical risks associated with the absence of global authority:

  • Prevention and management of armed conflict.

  • Regulation of competition over global resources.

  • Addressing human rights abuses that crossing national boundaries.

  • Managing shared global threats that individual states cannot solve in isolation, such as pandemics or climate change.

Historical Development and Milestones of World Order

• The progression of world order follows a specific logical chain centered on humanizing conflict and institutionalizing cooperation:

  • International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Origins: Emerged from the principle that warfare should have established rules to protect non-combatants and those no longer fighting. It asserts that certain actions, such as mistreating the wounded or targeting civilians, are prohibited regardless of a party's military advantage.

  • Henry Dunant: A Swiss businessman who witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in $1859$. He observed wounded soldiers left without medical care, which led him to write A Memory of Solferino in $1862$. This work called for the creation of a neutral body to care for the wounded and international agreements on humane treatment.

  • Founding of Major Institutions: Dunant’s efforts led to the establishment of the Red Cross movement in $1863$ and the signing of the first Geneva Convention in $1864$.

  • Evolution of the Geneva Conventions:

    • The first convention in $1864$ focused on protecting wounded soldiers on land.

    • A revision in $1906$ extended these protections.

    • The $1929$ revision added protections for prisoners of war, a direct result of experiences in World War I.

    • The four Geneva Conventions of $1949$ represented a comprehensive rewrite following World War II to address the extreme scale of civilian suffering.

  • League of Nations ($1919–1946$): Established by the Covenant of the League of Nations as part of the Treaty of Versailles following World War I. It was the first permanent international organization dedicated to preventing war via diplomacy and collective security. Its failure to prevent World War II was due to its lack of an independent military, a reliance on unanimous decision-making, and the absence of major powers like the United States. However, it provided the structural template for the United Nations.

  • United Nations ($1945$-present): Founded through the UN Charter signed in San Francisco in $1945$ with the goal to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.’ It addressed the League's failings by granting the Security Council enforcement powers under Chapter $VII$.

Dimensions and Legal Nature of Conflict

• Inter-state Conflict (Conflict Between States):

  • India-Pakistan (Kashmir): A territorial dispute originating from the $1947$ Partition. It has caused multiple wars (in $1947–48$, $1965$, and $1999$) and is complicated by an internal separatist movement in Kashmir seeking independence from both nations, illustrating the overlap between inter-state and intra-state friction.

  • Iran-Israel Conflict: A long-term ‘shadow war’ involving cyberattacks, assassinations, and proxy strikes. It escalated into direct state-on-state combat in April $2024$ after Iran launched a missile and drone attack on Israeli soil. This culminated in the June $2025$ ‘$12$-Day War,’ featuring Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear and military targets and the first direct US strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, ending with a ceasefire after $12$ days.

• Intra-state Conflict (Conflict Within a State):

  • Myanmar: Following the February $2021$ military coup, conflict has persisted between the military junta, pro-democracy forces, and ethnic armed organizations, including the ongoing crisis for the Rohingya minority in Rakhine State. It demonstrates that intra-state conflicts often involve complex, overlapping political and ethnic fronts.

• Legal Categories and Protection Gaps:

  • International Armed Conflict: Between states; governed by the Geneva Conventions.

  • Non-international Armed Conflict: Within a state; subject to fewer legal protections.

  • Internal Violence/Unrest: May fall below the legal threshold of ‘armed conflict,’ creating a protection gap.

• Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): Individuals forced to flee due to violence or disaster who remain within their country's borders. Legally, they differ from refugees, who are protected under the $1951$ Refugee Convention and can seek asylum abroad. IDPs remain under the jurisdiction of their own government—which may be the perpetrator of their displacement—leaving them in a vulnerable legal position.

• Crimes Against Humanity: Widespread or systematic attacks on civilians (torture, murder, enslavement, persecution) prosecutable under the Rome Statute. Unlike war crimes, these do not require a connection to an active armed conflict, allowing the International Criminal Court (ICC) to address state violence against its own people outside of formal war.

Specialized Categories of Armed Conflict

• Conventional Warfare: Conflict between organized state militaries using standard tactics and weapons. This is the primary form of warfare the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols were created to regulate.

• Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD): Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons capable of mass casualties and long-term damage. Due to their scale, they are governed by specific treaty regimes rather than general humanitarian law.

  • Treaty Regimes: Includes the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

  • Chemical and Biological Warfare Examples:

    • Kim Jong-nam ($2017$): Assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport using VX nerve agent, which is banned under the CWC. This highlights state-sponsored use of WMD-class agents outside of a traditional battlefield.

    • Sergei Skripal ($2018$): Poisoned with Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, UK. Russia was accused despite being a party to the CWC, showcasing difficulties in verifying and punishing violations when an accused state controls the evidence.

  • Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC): Opened in $1993$, entered force in $1997$. It prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons.

  • Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW): Based in The Hague, established in $1997$ to implement the CWC. It conducts inspections and investigations. It received the Nobel Peace Prize in $2013$ for overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical stockpile.

• Guerrilla Warfare and Terrorism: Guerrilla warfare involves small, mobile forces using sabotage and ambush. Terrorism targets civilians to create fear for political goals. Both challenge IHL because combatants often lack uniforms and do not represent formal states, making traditional rules difficult to apply.

• Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS): Weapons that can select and engage targets without human control. They raise unresolved legal and ethical questions regarding accountability for unlawful strikes and whether machines can correctly apply principles of proportionality and distinction.

Conflicts Related to State Expansion and Indigenous Rights

• Expansionism involves a state extending territory or influence beyond its borders. Historical borders often ignored existing peoples, leading to contemporary instability and the displacement of Indigenous groups:

  • Uighurs: A Turkic Muslim minority in China's Xinjiang region subjected to mass detention and suppression of culture and religion.

  • Ogoni People: Located in the Niger Delta, Nigeria; their land is impacted by environmental degradation and conflict related to oil extraction.

  • Inuit: Indigenous peoples across Canada, Greenland/Denmark, Alaska/US, and Russia. Their way of life is threatened by climate change and competing state claims over melting Arctic shipping routes and resources.

  • Maasai: Pastoralists in Kenya and Tanzania displaced from traditional lands by government development and conservation efforts.

  • Māori: Indigenous people in New Zealand; their rights are defined by the Treaty of Waitangi ($1840$). This differs from the Australian context where no early treaty existed.

  • Cherokee: Forcibly relocated from the south-eastern US under the Indian Removal Act of $1830$, known as the ‘Trail of Tears.’

Resource Competition and Interdependence

• Conflict Due to Resources:

  • Scarcity: Competition over fresh water, minerals, and arable land increases as populations grow and climate change progresses.

  • Knowledge: States compete for military, cyber, and technological capabilities to shape relative power.

  • Production Resources: Rivalries form over energy infrastructure, factories, and rare-earth minerals required for technology.

  • Food and Water: Disputes over shared rivers crossing multiple borders are a primary trigger for tension.

• Interdependence: This is the incentive for states to maintain stability through mutual reliance:

  • Sporting and Global Interchange: Events like the Olympics foster state engagement and serve as platforms for diplomacy or protest.

  • Political Interaction: Economic relationships, trade, migration, and security cooperation give states a stake in each other's stability.

  • Social and Educational Exchanges: Art and student programs build links at the people-to-people level.

  • Bilateral and Multilateral Agreements: The formal mechanisms (trade deals, defense pacts, climate accords) that structure interdependence.

Strategic Essay Frameworks

• Predictability vs. Absence of Global Government: Use the failure of the League of Nations as evidence that voluntary goodwill is insufficient for world order. Contrast this with the UN’s Chapter $VII$ enforcement powers to show a deliberate design choice toward security.

• Law Lagging Behind Conflict: Argue that international humanitarian law, originally designed for conventional state-on-state war, is struggle to keep pace with new threats. Use LAWS, targeted chemical assassinations (Kim Jong-nam, Skripal), and terrorism as specific evidence for this ‘effectiveness of law’ angle.