Obligation of Global Superpowers
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“The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members”(United).
This is the first sentence in Article 2, Chapter 1 of the United Nations Charter. United Nations provide equal opportunities for all countries. In Article 1, Chapter 1, the UN’s goal is stated; “The purposes of the United Nations are to maintain international peace and security, to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats in peace, and for the suppression of……..”(United).
It is clear here that the United Nations does its best to maintain peace across the globe. In order to achieve peace, the UN tries to give equal rights to all its members, and treat them equal in all disputes. However, a rather paradoxical statement appears in Article 23 of Chapter5, The Security Council; it states, “The Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations. The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council.”(United) Later it also states that ten non-permanent members are chosen by the General Assembly with a term of two years. Five superior countries above the rest of the world! Also, no decision could be made by the Security Council if even one of the permanent members veto against it.
The United Nations Charter was written to protect the rights of all countries in the world, but ironically, there are statements that are in favor of the strong countries. Strong nations influence other countries over important global decisions, trade between countries, and sometimes even the internal affairs of small countries. A good example of such a strong country is the United States, in which, according to Chomsky, even has a saying “What we say goes”.(Chomsky(What we say goes) 15) The United States is a ‘global superpower’ along with the recently rising China. These global superpowers have enormous influence over the rest of the world. Outstanding armaments, an abundance of resources, a big and strong economy, and a lot of enormous multinational corporations. These are some of the factors that make the superpowers dominant. Small countries submit themselves over these large weapons and rely on their flattery to the big nations to survive.
As the United States is unstoppable by any other country in the world, they do what they want; they influence every outcome of a deal to be favorable for themselves. According Chomsky , the United States invaded Iraq and triggered a war without an approval from the United Nations. When the U.S. failed to seize Iraq with their military, it asked UN to bear some of the cost of the war. The resolution suggested by the U.S. and Britain reached an unanimous agreement at the UN security council(resolution 1511). Few countries such as France and Russia resisted this decision and didn’t send any backup, but countries such as Germany and Pakistan succumbed and maintained a symbolic mutual relationship (Chomsky(Interventions 74-77). This shows the U.S’s tyranny over the rest of the world.
The Iraq war, the Afghanistan war are both examples of explicit tyranny of the United States. When seen closely, there are more such events. After the World War Two, strong countries started to rule their counterparts with tools other than their military power. They started using their economy, resources, technology, and companies. China uses its resources to threaten others. When Japan and China were involved in the dispute of the ownership of the Senkaku Islands, China abused their abundance of rare earth resources; China owns 99% of the world’s rare earth resources, but the resources are very important substances that are mandatory in electronic devices. China claimed that they will stop their export of the rare earth resources into Japan, which would cause devastating effects on the Japanese economy. The dispute didn’t end, but China proved to the world their superiority over the rest of the world.
Technology also enables superpowers to dominate the globe. Even if countries own rare resources in their territory, if they don’t have the technology to exploit those resources and use it wisely, they have to depend on the strong countries. Therefore, when superpowers are jealous of others’ resources, their leaders just need to fly to other countries and sign contracts; contracts signed under the name of a ‘mutual’ development of the resources and an ‘equal’ distribution of the profit. But in reality, the big countries are simply taking the resources.
Multinational Corporations of the superpowers have a threatening effect on the third world. These corporations enjoy building companies on the third world to benefit from the cheap labor, cheap land value, abundance of resources, and minimal restraints concerning human rights. When these corporations build major factories in small countries, those countries have their economy solely dependent on the factories. All of their workforce begin to leak into the factories, and they become specialized at it. This restricts the countries to develop other parts of their economy. On the other hand, the big corporations don’t rely on the countries; they just choose countries that are most suitable for production at that moment, and when the good conditions cease to be true, they are able to move at any time. Therefore, since the multinational corporations have a favorable situation in their relationship, they are able to ask for more things. They start to ignore the rights of the workers and have them work in hard conditions. Countries cannot complain because when they start implementing regulations, the companies can move their companies right away to somewhere with less regulations. These superiority over deals make multinational corporations another weapon for the superpowers; when superpowers want to effect other countries, they could just use multinational corporations under their supervision to give obstacles to others. Afraid of an economic breakdown, small countries are forced to act on the behalf of the superpowers.
Even though the United States is having a hard time recovering from its economic crisis, its advantages over other countries cannot be compared to others. On The Economist, when talking about problems in America’s economy, it was stated, “Are these worried justified? On the plus side, it is hard to think of any large country with as many inherent long-term advantages as America: what would China give to have a Silicon Valley? Or Germany an Ivy League?”(The Economist 11). From this statement, we can feel the influence of the United States as a global superpower. It has great impact over the world even during hard times with a bad economy. Silicon Valley, Ivy League, and such things help the country ace in a variety of fields, which empowers America to ‘rule’ the world.
Superpowers not only affect international issues on their behalf, but also pose negative effects on the globe. China is already the world’s top manufacturer, top auto market, top cement producer and top polluter (Larson 38). When looking into the part about ‘top polluter’, we can see that the China tops in carbon emissions and discharge of wastes. China rejects the sanctions other countries suggest claiming that China is still a ‘developing country’. Also, in 2001, the United States rejected the Kyoto Protocol and refused to reduce their carbon emissions. These two events clearly display that the superpowers have no intention to solve global matters, and are just making international dilemmas worse. They are the ones that are most capable of solving those problems, and also the most responsible for the problems. Albeit these factors, the superpowers keep posing bad effects to the rest of the world for their own benefit.
Not minding these problems, the two superpowers get together to cooperate simultaneously to benefit in return. Two sides will both compete and cooperate, perhaps simultaneously, as they shape and support a global system they can benefit from (Larson 38-39). The United States and China cooperate to get some profit from it, and also check each other regularly in order to exceed each other. United States citizens believe that China will never be able to surpass them. When we look at this statement, “China does not buy our debt for our sake; it does so it because it depends on an economy large and sound as ours for its own growth propelled through trade: The same set of rules that keep its currency undervalued means, by law, it can’t spend at home the huge pile of cash that it sits on. In that respect, China is more directly tied to us than we are to them. If the United States were to discontinue trade with China, it would hurt them more than us.”(Weinberger), we can see that the two superpowers ally for one’s own good, not for the good of each other. In addition, they always check to see if they are gaining more profit from the deal. If that is the case even between the two superpowers, what would the superpowers do to weaker countries? Unfair deals and forced cooperation is undoubtful.
So, what should the superpowers do from now on? They pose a lot of threats to the rest of the world, but still, they are the leaders of the world. Therefore, when seen from a different perspective, the superpowers are able to pose a lot of good effects in the global community. They can use their powers to make justifiable decisions at disputes between countries, and use their technology to solve global problems. It is a well known fact that many countries in the world already possess technology to not only reduce carbon emissions, but also reduce the already emitted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They are simply not using the technology since using it gives them no significant benefit. Therefore, if superpowers change their perspectives even by a little amount and start working for the good of the globe, they are the ones that are able to make the most change.
The United Nations, the Kyoto Protocol, and other covenants and groups of countries all pose positive results to the world, initially. They are just used in a different way, for the benefits of the superpowers. This situation can sound hopeless, but it can also be a good sign; it is a sign that if the influential covenants and groups are used differently, they can make a big change in the world. The United Nations can actually bring peace across the globe with the cooperation of the U.S. The Kyoto Protocol can have a great effect on reduction of global warming if the superpowers cooperate. International issues could be solved one by one, and disputes can end peacefully by the mediation of superpowers. The great influence and power over the globe is not a bad thing; the wrong usage of the power is the awful reality. If their powers are used right, the superpowers are the ones, the only ones that can actually change the world.
Sources:
-Larson, Christina. “China and the U.S.: The Indispensible Axis.” Time 22 Mar. 2010: vol.175 38-39
-“What’s wrong with America’s economy?” The Economist 6 May 2011: vol.399 11-12
-Chomsky, Noam. 변화의 길목에서 미국을 말하다(What we say goes).
Seoul: 시대의창, 2009 (arrangement with Henry Holt and Company, LLC.)
-Chomsky, Noam. 우리가 모르는 미국, 그리고 세계(Interventions).
Seoul: 시대의창, 2008 (arrangement with Noam Chomsky c/o Roam Agency, USA)
-United Nations Homepage. Signed in June 26, 1945 Secretary of the Publications Board United Nations New York, NY, 10017, USA13 May 2011
< http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/index.shtml/>.
-Weinberger, David. “Why China is not an Economic Threat to the United States”.
The Foundry, 3 Feb. 2010,
Posted in Enterprise and Free Markets, Ongoing Priorities 13 May 2011
<http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/03/why-china-is-not-an-economic-threat-to-the-u-s/>
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