Re: National Sovereignty

Carlos Alzugaray Treto wrote:

> That national sovereignty (and sovereign equality) should not be tampered
> with by the way of intervention is based in a long tradition that results
> from the fact that when others interfere in the internal affairs of another
> state, it has brought negative results for the countries where the
> intervention has taken place. In the past, Cuba, Dominican Republica, Haiti,
> Nicaragua, Vietnam, Congo, Chile, have been the object of different kinds of
> intervention with atrocious consequences. That is why national sovereignty,
> and non-intervention, are principles that should be respected. The new
> 'right of humanitarian intervention' would bring about the demise of these
> principles already established and lead the international system down a road
> that would be catstrophic.

Would you agree, Carlos, that in the past 60 years, national sovereignty
was also tampered with in Japan, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong
Kong? Were there atrocious consequences in these cases? On the other
hand, national sovereignty was not tampered with in between-the-wars
Germany, in post WWI Soviet Union, in post WWII Mainland China, and in
the pre-WWII Japanese territories.

Also, don't you think that you need to consider the road not taken? If,
for example, North Vietnam had merely capitulated or stopped its
aggression against the South, would the Vietnamese people of today be
better or worse off? Similarly, if the U.S. had simply not come to the
aid of the French, would the people of southeast Asia of today be better
or worse off. These are difficult questions and I do not pretend to have
the answers. But it seems to me that one who uses historical facts to
either support or oppose intervention in national sovereignty on the
basis of the harm or good it has done to the people must present a more
complete case.

-- 
Pat Gunning, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
Web pages on Subjectivism, Democracy, Taiwan, Ludwig von Mises,
Austrian Economics, and my University Classes
http://www2.cybercities.com/g/gunning/welcome.htm
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/barclay/212/welcome.htm