Lessons from Rwanda
I was reading Moju this morning and it got me thinking about international collective action in the field of international security. Hotel Rwanda is a good film, it makes a good stab at portraying humanity at its worst. But more than the film production it’s the true story that is shockingly awesome. Moju suggests that it is Rwanda’s lack of international political leverage that saw the genocide (or should I say “Acts of genocide”) continue without external intervention. And Moju is right.
At this point it is quite natural to jump up and down and complain about American intervention in Iraq, (Operation Iraqi Liberation) and highlight the natural acronym. I did that in the comfort of my living room while watching the film. But, the issue is a very complex one. Think for a moment if Sri Lanka was The international superpower, with the grand musthache at the helm. Would we have sent soldiers to Rwanda? I think not. After the initial good will, there would have been plenty of domestic political backlash once the body count of “our boys” started to rise. The political gain is miniscule compared to the political loss. In politics ppl tend to remember the bad stuff and forget the good stuff, I mean ppl still talk about America’s cock up in Vietnam. Look at Iraq today, just over 3 years after the invasion and GWB continues to lick his political wounds. The reality of the world today (and well anyday really) is that you can not expect altruistic behaviour when the costs are high. If the Rwandan crisis could have been solved by humanitarian aid, everyone would have rushed in to give the bucks. But bucks are a lot less costly than lives, as soon as your soldiers’ lives are at stake there jolly well ought to be something tangible to show your voters.
So while it is easy and quite natural to blame the States, I don’t think any other superpower would have behaved differently. So what we need is a strong international solution. There are two ways of doing this. 1) As a club good, like NATO, or 2) as an international public good like the UN peace keepers. The obvious problem with the latter is free riders. It would be unfair to make economically weaker nations like Sri Lanka and Rwanda to supply vast resources for this international army. And yet it is in these economically smaller, less powerful nations that internal conflict is rife. So there is a problem of free riding. Altruism would be required, and this is not always forthcoming. This would severely hamper the implementation of a significant international security force. International collective action is difficult at the best of times. I mean, just look at the WTO, and that’s dealing with dollars and cents. An international security force would be dealing with lives, a far tougher proposition. Option 1 sounds more plausible, but think of this, a Sub-saharan Treaty Organization, strikes fear into one’s heart. But a fragmented system sees duplication of resources, smaller isolated countries left out and the same collective action problems though on a smaller scale.
Noting these difficulties, it is important to remember that international intervention into domestic issues is not always a good thing. I don’t know much about the IPKF action in Sri Lanka, but from what i’ve heard it wasn’t all rosy. Furthermore, what if the internal conflict is government sanctioned, and the government does not request external help. Does the international community watch while massacre takes place, or do they intervene nonetheless. If the option is the latter the implications are potentially undemocratic and there is an allowance for paternalism. It is in response to such concerns (among others) that the UN peace keepers are peace keepers and not peace makers. So there is a case for the argument that domestic problems require domestic solutions.
So where does this leave us. Despite the difficulties of international collective action, incidents like Rwanda ‘94 can’t be ignored with shrugged shoulders. A tentative answer would be to have an international body overseeing regional groupings. So for instance Asia could have her own version of NATO, and if there is some scene in Colombo requiring international intervention, the force would be made up by military support from India, Pakistan etc. but overseen by an international body to ensure there aren’t too many cockups. So if for instance the Sub-Saharan treaty organization is exceedingly weak, the international body can boost it with assistance. The international body I refer to would require less resources than one that is supposed to police the whole world, and therefore collective action problems would be less. Domestic voters would be less averse to mutual protection within a region than their soldiers fighting in some little village in the Ivory Coast. Using the regional input is also important since it is more likely that the government of India would be sensitive to the nature of the conflict and the culture of the people in Sri Lanka than the government of Canada would. The two tiers of power, viz. regional and international, makes the system less prone to blatant abuses of power as there are added checks and balances.
This solution is far from perfect, but it does make some headway in countering the difficulties of the more conventional methods of international collective action.
How about a small special task force of super powered inividuals? We could have them in stationary orbit and fly them out to wherever there was a crisis?
We could also videotape the asskickings they deliver and sell them on DVD in order to pay their wages. After a few years it’d be in profit even!
What you’re suggesting seems to be something that’ll pave the way for a global goverment no machang? How to do that? My way would be to let all the Africans die, too little hope. Let brain drain make sure that all the Asians move to the West, once reverse brain drain starts then the West will start to support Asia. Fuck Australasia, no trouble there. South Americans have enough coke to keep them satisfied so no need to worry. As for the Arabs, wait till nuclear fission is made feasible, then the oil will be worthless so buggers will have to play nice with each other and the rest of the world. So way forward would be to find nuclear fission!
I’ve started experiments on a bunch of rats in an attempt to imbue them with super-rodent powers, don’t worry! The end is in sight!
Comment by Kev — March 22, 2006 @ 5:02 pm
Kev - If I was a rat i would have volunteered. If you need a food supply for them let me know, i know a bugger who can make swiss cheese in Kotmale!
Comment by ddm — March 23, 2006 @ 10:18 am
Your nationalism blinds you with ignorance, you say “My way would be to let all the Africans die, too little hope” so what amazing contributions have the sri lankans made beyond hitting a ball with a stick and trying to catch it. Have any of our films won any oscars like http://www.tsotsi.com/english/index.php
yes we could have been a lot of things if not for the civil war and our tribal differences but don’t use that as an excuse since it is a pretty lame one. You go on to say “As for the Arabs, wait till nuclear fission is made feasible, then the oil will be worthless” - The oil will run out long before the nuclear fission even becomes possible, so much so is the desperation for oil that rumour has it that they are even exploring for oil in Sri Lanka. The exact location of which is being kept under wraps. As anybody has seen the Galle road gets busy at about 5am and stays that way until late, we have no practical alternatives in this country to oil based transport nor alternative roads except the Galle road if you want to go anywhere in this country. I wonder what we will all do when the oil runs out which in my estimation will be in the next 10 years……
Comment by Janin — March 23, 2006 @ 12:47 pm
Ah, I see. And where have I said anything about Sri Lankans on my comment? It’s not nationalism if you’re talking about whole continents or regions you idiot, that’s Kevism.
Yes yes, Africans have made a great movie, Sri Lankan’s also made great movies no? Have you seen Suddhige Kathawa or Age Vairaya? Brilliant stuff.
Maxa estimate about the oil, good thing I bought a toyota prius no? Bloody puerile ponnaya, try and find a sense of humour. Anyway, all this shit doesn’t matter because when the nukes start whizzing about like mayflies, then we can be the greatest fuckers on top of the smouldering rubble.
Ado ddm, hook me up with the cheese bugger. Getting that stuff from Switzerland is proving to be really tough. Some of the mice can alter timeflow now. But they refuse to help the Sri Lankans. I tried to make it so that we beat the portugese, but the buggers refused saying that it’d only mean we’d get bitchslapped harder by the Dutch! Can you believe the cheek?
Comment by Kev — March 23, 2006 @ 1:03 pm
So Kev would you have any sensible alternatives to loosen the grip oil has on Sri Lanka ?, and apologies for presuming that you were talking about sri lankans.
Comment by Janin — March 23, 2006 @ 6:29 pm
In answer to my own question - Check out the interview with this dude Kev :http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7401
It’s on the subject of clean energy something the Galle road is desperate need of, a few LPG converted taxis (Kangaroo Cabs) won’t cut it
Comment by janin — March 23, 2006 @ 8:34 pm
Blah blah blah, don’t care.
Initial comment was meant to be a joke, but it seems like you wouldn’t know one if it tried to beg a few rupees off you on the street. What happens to the oil situ in Colombo means jack shit to me. And yes, I am selfish.
As far as sensible alternatives go, I’m surprised you’d ask ME for some. Have you not read my solution to world crises?
Sorry I did a poo on your comments ddm. Please expunge them if you wish to do so.
Kisses!!! xxx
Comment by Kev — March 23, 2006 @ 10:06 pm
haha no problem. Funny poo is good poo in my book.
Comment by ddm — March 23, 2006 @ 11:55 pm
No worrys Ma-Chang!! As you say “And yes, I am selfish” - Which is cool is you are in the majority here in Colombo. After all if the shit get too much in Colombo you can always hot foot it to Dubai or even London and wax lyrical about how you miss your “mother/brother/fatherland” Some of us do care aren’t selfish and still manage to live in Colombo…. Thanks for the sanity check. Love and xxxx
Comment by Janin — March 24, 2006 @ 8:57 am