The world’s giants and their temper tantrums

The world feels so small in these troubled times. People from all corners of the planet are similarly experiencing the consequences of the lawless behavior of a few rogue giants who are having fits of terrible temper tantrums. These monstrous brats are violently stomping their feet on the ground, making the whole planet tremble. These Goliaths are recklessly brandishing or throwing their deadly toys all over, causing torment, destruction, and death among the hapless multitude of the world.

There’s Russia and its barbaric invasion of Ukraine, driven by its sheer desire to grab territory, causing terrible deaths for the two nations, destruction of cities, and serious economic dislocation for many countries. There’s China’s mobster behavior in laying absolute ownership over the entire South China Sea (SCS), including the exclusive economic zones of coastal countries around the SCS. China has been cruel in ramming the boats of poor fishermen and harsh in maltreating the coast guards of weaker coastal states. China also rattles the world by constantly threatening to invade Taiwan.

There’s Israel’s continuing commission of genocide in Palestine, its recent bombardment of southern Lebanon, and its unprovoked bombings in Iran. There’s the biggest bully among the giants, which is none other than the United States of America. US President Donald Trump is like former President Rodrigo Duterte on steroids, because he employs warplanes and missiles to blow up boats merely suspected of trafficking illegal drugs in Latin American waters. Trump arms and protects Israel to give the latter an unhampered ability to continue perpetrating genocide in Palestine. Trump has joined forces with Israel in its bloody bombings in Iran. Trump has also telegraphed his plans to use military intervention to forcibly oust the Cuban government. And then there’s Iran, which has had no qualms retaliating by bombing civilian communities and business establishments in the Middle East.

The world is in the throes of a third world war and is currently being battered by another economic tailspin, because of the egomania, savagery, and amorality of a few country leaders. International law is in tatters because of these leaders who want the world to revert to the “might-is-right” system of international disorder.

The middle powers of prosperous countries must hold the line and must not succumb to shortsighted vested interests, the nostalgia of old alliances, and the dystopia of race and religion. International institutions, such as the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court, as well as regional alliances, must continue holding the guardrails against unilateralism. Civil society organizations across countries must continuously hold mass protests to denounce the walk back to barbarism and the resort to arms as the go-to means of resolving conflicts.

What’s at stake in this resurgence of wars goes beyond specific people and particular territories. It’s a leap backward to a way of life among sovereign countries that accepts the ready resort to military violence and economic warfare as legitimate remedies to international disagreements. If this leap backward gets calcified as an acceptable way of life, it will erase the hard-fought victories that have led us in the direction of relatively peaceful coexistence and reason-based solutions to disputes among states. The current state of world affairs is far from perfect, but it will stray further from being perfect if we let the rogue giants have their way.

The step backward in international relations will result in countries swerving toward the choice of nondemocratic leaders. These autocratic leaders’ “might-is-right” mindset will not be confined to their engagements with enemy countries but will likewise be their attitude toward their own citizens. There will be a resurgence of fascist rulers as a result.

A might-is-right ethos among countries will give rise not only to the resurgence of fascist rulers, who will have no qualms about mistreating their own citizens, but the mindset will also seep into the ground by engendering a thug mentality in our communities. We have seen this happen with the prevalence of Duterte Diehard Supporters (DDS), who praise and espouse state violence as a means of solving societal problems in our country. We see this happening with the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement in the US, which supports racial and religious prejudices in state governance, and military aggression and economic persecution in international relations. Countries that have emergent groups similar to the DDS and Maga must do everything to stop their growth so that their gospels of prejudice and violence will not become the dominant culture in their societies. Otherwise, they will suffer the scourge experienced by the Philippines and the US.

Diplomacy, multilateralism, consensus, and resort to judicial resolutions are the right way forward for our world. These conventions are imperfect, grindingly slow, and occasionally dysfunctional, but the alternative being peddled by the rogue giants is the rule of brute force, a descent into the bottomless pit of violence, and a world of unending chaos.