Does International Law Threaten the U.S.?

Professor Barry Carter of Georgetown University Law Center recently posted onto the American Society of International Law’s listserve that the 2005 National Defense Strategy, undersigned by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld states the following in the section assessing America’s vulnerabilities:

“Our strength as a nation state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international fora, judicial processes, and terrorism.”
(At page 5 under “Our Vulnerabilities.”)

While one can take this statement as an observation that international dispute resolution is effective and that it is more likely to be used by militarily weak states than by militarily strong states, I have my doubts as to whether that was the sum and substance of what the DOD was trying to convey. Rather, the cataloguing of international fora and judicial processes along with terrorism is probably a fair indicator of the views of at least some in the current Admistration on international law dispute resolution.

As I’ve said before, this knee-jerk anti-internationalism causes missed opportunities: international institutions are neither good nor bad, per se, but they can be effectively designed and managed to further our national interest (as well as the interests of other like-minded states).

This Administration seems to be particularly hostile to international dispute settlement (wave good-bye to the Consular Relations Optional Protocol) and, to a slightly lesser extent, to multilateralism in general. Regarding Admisitration views on multilateralism, I do note that the National Defense Strategy lists other states wanting to join “our system of alliances and partnerships” as an opportunity. Faint praise, but perhaps some recognition of the uses of multilateralism. Hostility to internationalism as a strategy is short-sighted. But actually listing international legal processes along with terrorism as a vulnerability is a sad comment on the current state of affairs.