What do all regime change operations have in common? RPI Board Member John Laughland explains to the “World Public Forum – Dialogue of Civilizations” conference last month that all such interventions essentially include the criminal prosecution of the vanquished party. We have seen this most recently in Ukraine, Libya, Ivory Coast, against ISIS, and elsewhere.
But this is not a new phenomenon. This concept arises from the idea that one state has the right to punish another state, which began with Austria’s reaction to the assassination of the Archduke in 1914. This “punishment ethic” began the end of the concept of the sovereignty of states which had defined international relations for the preceding 400 years or so.
Watch Laughland’s fascinating presentation tracing the origins of the current addiction to intervention in any and every conflict or perceived conflict anywhere on earth:
(h/t Charles Burris)
