Arms Control: International Law and Realism

by Glen Segell

The world is typified by 1) an international community/society that constructs norms instilled in legal treatise by which states entertain regulatory and multi-lateral arms control processes. 2) states that view the world as power politics/realism dependant upon the role of the hegemonic power/s in imposing processes of non-proliferation and counter-proliferation 3) rogue states and terrorist organizations flouting diplomacy and pursuing the development and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Inherent to differences between international order and international anarchy are formal treaty commitments and informal legal norms contributed to a growing institutionalization and legalization of international relations. The adherence to these are by-and-large self-regulatory given extreme difficulties in verification and monitoring. States (rogue) and non-state entities (terrorists) that do not abide by such treatise norms provoke the hegemonic power, America, to abrogate liberalism for realism as the policeman in enforcing compliance to arms control norms and in effecting disarmament through regime change. Do arms control treatise constitute a legalization of international politics and/or does the use of force by the hegemonic state constitute the legality of maintaining international order against international anarchy?

42 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 10, 2004