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USA’S IMPORTANCE IN GLOBAL POLITICS

23/03/2024 09:08:00 Mfanukhona Nkambule

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In order to value the key role that USA plays in global politics, one needs to understand why the United Nations (UN) was established in 1945.

I have been hearing some people in certain quarters around the globe criticising the United States for interference in the domestic politics of other countries. In their understanding, sovereignty is an unchallenged right, manage State affairs as they please. To them, I suppose, sovereignty means that they must violate human rights and place their enemies on executions at their whims.

In the 1990s, Nelson Mandela referred to the US as an international police. This, he said, to spite Washington. He did not utter these words in good faith. The late first black South African president was aggrieved that USA and other Western nations criticised his three-day visit to Cuba to meet Fidel Castro.

At that time Castro faced accusations of dictatorship coupled with executions and denial of fundamental human rights. I am not implying that the USA is a saint and has never portrayed itself as a sinless angel. Let me take you back 79 years ago. On June 26, 1945, in San Francisco, the United Nations was formally established with the signing of the UN Charter.

It is found in the archives that Article 111 of this charter indicated that ‘the present Charter, of which the Chinese, French, Russian, English and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall remain deposited in the archives of the Government of the United States of America. Duly certified copies thereof shall be transmitted by that government to the governments of the other signatory States.’

Peace

Legend has it that the name United Nations originated with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941, when he described the countries fighting against the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) in World War II. The name was first used officially on January 1, 1942, when 26 states joined in the Declaration by the United Nations, pledging to continue their joint war effort and not to make peace separately.

Therefore, it is an indisputable veracity that the United Nations was established after World War II in an attempt to maintain international peace and security and achieve cooperation among nations on economic, social, and humanitarian problems.

It succeeded the League of Nations, an organisation conceived under similar circumstances following World War I.
Established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles ‘to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security’, the League of Nations ceased its activities after it failed to prevent global war. Any world war in this era of our lives can collapse the UN, which we must all strive to protect.

It must be said that the need for an international organisation to replace the League of Nations was first stated officially on October 30, 1943, in the Moscow Declaration issued by China, Great Britain, the United States and the USSR. It goes to show here that the original China was concerned about global peace and it is then important that Beijing and Washington cooperate in creating an international peaceful environment.

I was happy to learn that US President Joe Biden had a summit with the President of China Xi Jinping. Both presidents lead countries that are permanent members of the UN’s Security Council. They must work together to ensure that Russia, also a member of the Security Council, withdraws its troops from Ukraine.

It is highly immoral of Russia, no matter what posture NATO portrayed, to disregard the global security code. By virtue of being a member of the Security Council, President Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a custodian of the global security code.

At the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944, China, Great Britain, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) drafted specific proposals for a charter for the new organisation. I have to mention that the USSR was a confederation of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Transcaucasia, which comprised of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The USSR eventually grew to a world superpower with 15 republics. I presume that young people now know the founders of the United Nations. They now know who should be the serious and consistent advocates of world peace.

Framework

In the archives, it is stated that further agreement was reached on the framework and structure of the UN at the Yalta Conference in February of 1945.In the same year, representatives of 50 nations attended the founding conference in San Francisco where they drafted and later signed the UN charter. The required number of nations ratified the Charter on October 24, 1945 (officially United Nations Day).

In the preamble of the UN Charter, countries commit themselves to avoid war. It reads in the preamble: ‘We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.’

It further reads: ‘and for these ends to practise tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.’

‘Accordingly, our respective governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organisation to be known as the United Nations.’

Article 1 of the UN Charter is clear and straightforward as it explains why the organisation was established.
The purposes of the United Nations as stated in Article 1 are:

To maintain international peace and security and to that end, to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace and to bring about by peaceful means and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
To be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
Respecting the UN Charter as a founding member of this noble organisation, I have realised that the United States of America does not provoke nations into a fight. Instead, some nations are the aggressors, mostly those that violate the principles of democracy and rule of law. The US has always been reactive to explosive situations.
Those who take pride in violating human rights often challenge America to the battlefield or a lousy debate over superiority. Their interest is just to flex muscles against Washington.

Again, I have carefully learnt and observed that USA does not like, support or agitate war. Most of the countries or people who are unhappy with US’s foreign policy are actually the ones that often disregard the rule of law by subjecting citizens to torture and inhuman treatment.

I always ruminate over how the world could turn out to be without the US. Dr. Joshua Mzizi, the late liberal theologian, Times SUNDAY columnist and lecturer at the University of Swaziland (Eswatini) once said: “USA was chosen by God to rule the world.” I want to paraphrase the sentence. USA was chosen by God to lead the world to the right path. That was what Dr. Mzizi meant.

If America were to take a back seat and allow countries to govern without the requirement to obey international conventions and treaties, the world can degenerate into chaos. We would be like a society without the police. Police services were established to maintain order and peace. In the absence of the police force, mayhem becomes the order of the day. Likewise, dictators and warlords can have a field day if the United States were to take a low-profile approach to international affairs.

With other co-founders of the UN appearing unconcerned about world peace except Great Britain and a few others, I want thank the US for protecting the world from abysmal chaos. Civilised countries like Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Denmark, Spain and others should be thanked for supporting programmes on strengthening peace and order in the world.

For those who disagree with me, I want to be shown a country that has been accused by Washington of respecting human rights and practising democracy. I want to be shown a country that has been attacked by the US for respecting the rule of law. We may have different views about the US’s invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. But, I look at it from the perspective of the UN Charter.

Principles

Personally, I have just learnt that the only way to keep the USA away from your internal affairs is to respect human rights, rule of law and principles of democracy. As you do so, kindly do not support or been seen to be supporting designated terrorist organisations. In short, countries must refrain from practices that are perceived or seen to be threatening world peace. As stated in the UN Charter, there shouldn’t be a threat to peace.

Countries, mainly the founders of the UN and members of the Security Council, should work together to ensure sustainability of international peace through respect of human rights, democracy and rule of law. These three elements as mentioned above are foundations for stable global peace.

Indeed, countries can use human rights, democracy and respect for rule of law to create their wealth. No country must complain of interference when it is called upon to account for violation of human rights. This is because we are a global community. It is a fact that one country’s wicked action leading to war affects the rest of the world. As the world, we have combined our efforts to promote global trade.

We established the World Trade Organisation to promote this purpose. We do not want any war to disrupt world trade and movement. I must again point to the fact that a country’s sovereignty must be observed and respected when that particular country does not despise world freedom.