During the 1950s I grew up in a family who rooted for the success of African Americans in their just struggle for civil rights and full legal equality. Then in 1962 it was the terror of my own personal imminent nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis that first sparked my interest in studying international relations and U.S. foreign policy as a young boy of 12: “I can do a better job than this!”
Nrog rau qhov kev nce qib ntawm Tsov Rog Nyab Laj xyoo 1964 thiab cov tub rog cov qauv ntsia kuv ntawm lub ntsej muag, kuv tau ua qhov kev ntsuam xyuas ntxaws. Thaum kawg kuv tau txiav txim siab tias tsis zoo li Kev Tsov Rog Thoob Ntiaj Teb thib XNUMX thaum kuv Txiv tau tawm tsam thiab kov yeej cov tub rog Nyij Pooj thaum tseem hluas hauv Marine hauv Pacific, qhov kev tsov rog tshiab no ua txhaum cai, ua tsis ncaj ncees, tsis ncaj ncees, thiab Tebchaws Meskas tau ua txhaum rau nws. Amelikas nyuam qhuav tuaj txog qhov twg Fabkis tau tawm ntawm Dien Bien Phu. Yog li kuv txiav txim siab ua qhov me me uas kuv tuaj yeem tawm tsam Nyab Laj Tsov Rog.
In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson gratuitously invaded the Dominican Republic, which prompted me to commence a detailed examination of U.S. military interventions into Latin America from the Spanish-American War of 1898 up to President Franklin Roosevelt’s so-called “good neighbor” policy. At the end of this study, I concluded that the Vietnam War was not episodic, but rather systemic: Aggression, warfare, bloodshed, and violence were just the way the United States Power Elite had historically conducted their business around the world. Hence, as I saw it as a young man of 17, there would be more Vietnams in the future and perhaps someday I could do something about it as well as about promoting civil rights for African Americans. These twins concerns of my youth would gradually ripen into a career devoted to international law and human rights.
Yog li kuv tau pib kuv txoj kev kawm ntawm International Relations nrog lig, zoo kawg Hans Morgenthau nyob rau hauv thawj lub limtiam ntawm Lub ib hlis ntuj 1970 raws li ib tug 19 xyoo kawm ntawv qib siab sophomore nyob rau hauv University of Chicago los ntawm kev kawm nws theem pib introductory cov kev kawm. Thaum lub sij hawm, Morgenthau yog tus thawj coj ntawm cov tub rog kev kawm ntawm kev tawm tsam rau kev ntxub ntxaug Nyab Laj Tsov Rog, uas yog vim li cas kuv thiaj xaiv los kawm nrog nws. Thaum lub sijhawm kaum xyoo ntawm kev kawm qib siab hauv University of Chicago thiab Harvard, kuv tsis kam kawm nrog cov kws tshaj lij kev tawm tsam-Vietnam-War raws li lub hauv paus ntsiab lus thiab tseem nyob rau hauv qhov kev ua tau zoo uas lawv tsis muaj dab tsi los qhia kuv.
In the summer of 1975, it was Morgenthau who emphatically encouraged me to become a professor instead of doing some other promising things with my life: “If Morgenthau thinks I should become a professor, then I will become a professor!” After almost a decade of working personally with him, Morgenthau provided me with enough inspiration, guidance, and knowledge to last now almost half a lifetime.
Historically, this latest eruption of American militarism at the start of the 21st Century is akin to that of America opening the 20th Century by means of the U.S.-instigated Spanish-American War in 1898. Then the Republican administration of President William McKinley stole their colonial empire from Spain in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; inflicted a near genocidal war against the Filipino people; while at the same time illegally annexing the Kingdom of Hawaii and subjecting the Native Hawaiian people (who call themselves the Kanaka Maoli) to near genocidal conditions. Additionally, McKinley’s military and colonial expansion into the Pacific was also designed to secure America’s economic exploitation of China pursuant to the euphemistic rubric of the “open door” policy. But over the next four decades America’s aggressive presence, policies, and practices in the “Pacific” would ineluctably pave the way for Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 194l, and thus America’s precipitation into the ongoing Second World War. Today a century later the serial imperial aggressions launched and menaced by the Republican Bush Jr. administration and now the Democratic Obama administration are threatening to set off World War III.
By shamelessly exploiting the terrible tragedy of 11 September 2001, the Bush Jr. administration set forth to steal a hydrocarbon empire from the Muslim states and peoples living in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf under the bogus pretexts of (1) fighting a war against international terrorism; and/or (2) eliminating weapons of mass destruction; and/or (3) the promotion of democracy; and/or (4) self-styled “humanitarian intervention.” Only this time the geopolitical stakes are infinitely greater than they were a century ago: control and domination of two-thirds of the world’s hydrocarbon resources and thus the very fundament and energizer of the global economic system – oil and gas. The Bush Jr./ Obama administrations have already targeted the remaining hydrocarbon reserves of Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia for further conquest or domination, together with the strategic choke-points at sea and on land required for their transportation. In this regard, the Bush Jr. administration announced the establishment of the U.S. Pentagon’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) in order to better control, dominate, and exploit both the natural resources and the variegated peoples of the continent of Africa, the very cradle of our human species.
This current bout of U.S. imperialism is what Hans Morgenthau denominated “unlimited imperialism” in his seminal work Politics Among Nations (4th ed. 1968, at 52-53):
Cov piv txwv keeb kwm zoo tshaj plaws ntawm kev txwv tsis pub muaj kev txwv tsis pub muaj kev ywj pheej yog txoj cai nthuav dav ntawm Alexander lub Great, Rome, Arabs nyob rau xyoo pua xya thiab yim, Napoleon I, thiab Hitler. Lawv txhua tus muaj kev txhawb siab rau kev nthuav dav uas paub tsis muaj kev txwv tsis pub muaj kev txwv, pub rau nws tus kheej txoj kev vam meej thiab, yog tias tsis tso tseg los ntawm lub zog loj, yuav mus rau hauv kev txwv ntawm lub ntiaj teb kev nom kev tswv. Qhov kev yaum no yuav tsis txaus siab yog tias tseem muaj nyob txhua qhov chaw uas muaj peev xwm ua tau ntawm kev tswj hwm-ib pawg neeg tswj hwm ntawm cov txiv neej uas los ntawm nws txoj kev ywj pheej heev ua rau tus neeg kov yeej txoj kev ntshaw rau lub hwj chim. Nws yog, raws li peb yuav pom, raws nraim qhov tsis muaj kev sib haum xeeb, lub siab xav kov yeej txhua yam uas qiv nws tus kheej kom kov yeej, tus yam ntxwv ntawm unlimited imperialism, uas yav dhau los tau ua tsis tiav ntawm imperialistic txoj cai ntawm hom no….
On 10 November 1979 I visited with Hans Morgenthau at his home in Manhattan. It proved to be our last conversation before he died on 19 July 1980. Given his weakened physical but not mental condition and his serious heart problem, at the end of our necessarily abbreviated one-hour meeting I purposefully asked him what he thought about the future of international relations. This revered scholar, whom international relations experts generally consider to be the founder of modern international political science in the post World War II era, responded:
Future, what future? I am extremely pessimistic. In my opinion the world is moving ineluctably towards a third world war—a strategic nuclear war. I do not believe that anything can be done to prevent it. The international system is simply too unstable to survive for long. The SALT II Treaty is important for the present, but over the long haul it cannot stop the momentum. Fortunately, I do not believe that I will live to see that day. But I am afraid you might.
The factual circumstances surrounding the outbreaks of both the First World War and the Second World War currently hover like the Sword of Damocles over the heads of all humanity. It is imperative that we undertake a committed and concerted effort to head-off Hans Morgenthau’s final prediction on the cataclysmic demise of the human race.
Francis A. Boyle, Champlaign, IL.
Professor ntawm International Law
Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the
Middle East Peace Negotiations (1991-93)