Trump & Putin. It’s a bullies’ world
Self-preservation is the "first law of nature". It acts as a core instinct driving human actions like seeking safety and securing/protecting resources. It is the “fight-or-flight” instinct.
In this world, the weak will always be the slave of the strong; the poor must keep their mouth shut when the rich are on the floor.
That is why Donald John Trump and Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin are behaving the way they have been doing since 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and since March 2026 when America and Israel began their assault on Iran.
And the world helplessly looks on.
Though member-states are, in principle, supposed to be bound by the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force in international relations, in actual practice, international relations have, since 1945, been governed by the will and the power of the rich against the poor, the strong against the weak.
I am one of those who think we cannot write off the UN: I acknowledge its success in eradicating smallpox, for instance. In its 70 peacekeeping missions thus far, it has helped stabilise nations, and in many ways it has pioneered the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to fight poverty.
But in its mandate to “take effective collective measures for prevention and removal of threats to peace”, the UN has failed humankind.
Here, the UN has essentially been no different from the League of Nations established after the First World War. In invoking “Jus ad bellum” principle in international law, Adolf Hitler could not be constrained as German tanks rolled into countries he felt Germany was qualified to conquer, as the world continued its Policy of Appeasement.
Is the world not over-appeasing Trump and Putin? Have Articles 2(4) and 51 of the UN Charter — that ban “the threat or use of force against another state's territorial integrity” — not been breached enough by the Trump-Putin alliance?
Who is to protest? Worse, who cares if you protest? The United States remains the largest donor to the United Nations, responsible for 22 per cent of the UN regular budget. Since the outset of his second term, however, President Trump has made significant cuts to U.S. funding — as he did in his first term. He blames the UN’s “inability to solve global conflicts”.
Look who is complaining about conflicts. Who starts them?
Veto
Meanwhile, like the other four super-powers, including China, America and Russia retain the power of the veto. Since February 16, 1946 — when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) cast the first veto on a draft resolution regarding the withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon and Syria, the veto has been recorded 293 times.
As recently as September 30 2022, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution which described its attempts to unlawfully annex four regions of Ukraine as “a threat to international peace and security”.
On December 23, 1989, the United States, Britain, and France vetoed a Security Council resolution that condemned the U.S. invasion of Panama. It didn’t matter that the resolution (which demanded the withdrawal of U.S. troops) was supported by ten of the 15 members of the Council. China, has cast 16 vetoes since 1997.
The only way to stop the use of the veto is for Africa to be economically and militarily powerful. As long as we remain as we are, weak and divided, Africa cannot force its will on the world.
That is where the world misses Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. It is no exaggeration to forecast that if Nkrumah had still been the President of Ghana, two things would have happened: one, Africa would collectively be entitled to a veto or the veto would have been banned.
Not impressed
All told, I am not impressed by any US military successes in Iran. The war is like the biblical David versus Goliath — minus the God factor.
I started this article quoting the first law of nature – self-preservation. Let’s ask ourselves: how come that no matter how angry America is, it is not declaring war on Russia? The answer is the classical definition of a bully. Bullies yearn for a fight when they see someone they can beat.
Trump knows Putin. Unlike Western Europe, Russia’s might has not dwindled since 1945. Trump knows Putin is as war-hungry as he. Plus, America also knows that if Russia fights, China will fight and if China fights, North Korea will fight.
This is the deterrent that has saved humankind from a third world war.
Russia’s war against Ukraine and America’s invasion of Iran are a play-out of the “nasty, brutish, short” state of nature which philosophers like Hobbes foresaw and warned against. In that state, nothing matters except the quest to be strong militarily.
I am persuaded that if Africa had heeded Kwame Nkrumah’s call and started arming itself economically and militarily, the powers of this world would be blinking twice before calling us “shit-hole”.
The writer is Executive Director, Centre for Communication and Culture.
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