A World in Disarray by Richard Haass

Author:Richard Haass [Haass, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-11-18T14:19:34+00:00

7. Pieces of Process

When I taught at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a common theme was that 90 percent of life in the public sector was implementation. Policy design of course mattered, and agreement in principle was of course desirable, but what counted most was what actually got done. I emphasize this here because legitimacy and order are a function of process as well as policy. The post–Cold War era seemed to begin with broad agreement on both as much of the world came together in the UN Security Council to rebuff Saddam Hussein’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait. But this success in large part was made possible because there was broad support for the traditional notion of sovereignty and because of the starkness of what Saddam had done. Indeed, the United States would not have gone to the Security Council as it did throughout the crisis if any of the other four permanent members had viewed things differently and was prepared to use its veto to frustrate American designs. Put differently, the legitimacy bestowed by the support of the UN Security Council was judged by Washington to be desirable rather than essential.

The very same issue arose amid efforts to galvanize an international response to what was widely viewed in the United States and Europe as unwarranted, immoral behavior by Serbia. When it became clear that Russia would use its veto to block UN endorsement of armed attacks on Serbia, the United States, along with Great Britain and France, took the issue to NATO. Such “forum shopping” is a practical way to generate multilateral support and a degree of legitimacy for an endeavor, but it is resented by those who disagree with the policy at issue or who see it as an end run around those organizations they believe are unique in their ability to confer legitimacy.

In the case of what became the 2003 Iraq War, the United States began by working with the UN Security Council but in the end abandoned it and essentially went to war with little international backing, formal or informal. Just over a decade later, Russia intervened in Crimea, again without resort to the Security Council. The UN did meet about Crimea, but that was in response to what took place, not to provide any authorization for what Russia was doing.

There are several conclusions to draw here. The first is that no country, much less a major power, is prepared to forgo the opportunity to act on behalf of what it perceives as its national interest simply because it lacks a blessing from the United Nations. The Balkans situation just alluded to is a case in point. One can argue that what the government of Serbia was doing was illegitimate in terms of international law or values and that what the United States and Europe sought to do was inherently legitimate. But the refusal of Russia to go along meant the action could not receive the legitimacy stemming from approval by the authority that traditionally bestows it.

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