International norms matter. Citizens of the more than 80 nations where polls have been conducted do think and act taking into account global realities and norms. Most could be called "global citizens", not in opposition to but along with their self-identity as citizens of their own country. That was a key point of this paper, prepared as part of a larger project on the global economy sponsored by this new foundation. It was the logic behind Secretary of State John Kerry's stirring speech last week, making the case for a US military intervention to punish Bashar al-Assad for his apparent use of chemical weapons. Doing nothing, he argued, would be appeasement (recalling the Munich compromise) and send a signal that the United States is no longer able or willing to punish behavior that clearly violates an internationally acknowledged norm: that use of chemical weapons is a heinous act.
However, international law matters too. A virtually unilateral US military intervention would set the norm on which people everywhere agree (that use of chemical weapons is a step too far) against the awkward and inadequate but still better-than-nothing framework of international law against the use of military force except for self-defense without Security Council approval.
For the last three years at the Center for Global Development - beginning before the troubles in Syria -several of my colleagues and I have argued that the United States should use its market might-not just its military power-to drive illegitimate leaders from power and to support legitimate successor governments by enacting what we call preemptive contract sanctions.
The United States should declare, ideally with agreement among many other nations, that some regimes are "odious", ...
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