Question

International cooperation often requires that governments relinquish sovereignty. Why do governments agree to seed their autonomy? Why, for example, do some countries prioritize global or regional issues such as human rights or the environment over other goals? Provide at least 2 examples of governments that signed international treaties but then did not comply with the agreements. Explain why governments fail to comply with international agreements.

Answer 1

A successful foreign policy requires that a government fosters friendly and harmonious relations with other countries in order to promote economic, social and political development of its people in relation to the rest of the world. The 20th century saw the major powerful states of the world waging massive Wars against each other in the form of the two World wars, The Cold War and the several US supported coups and wars in South America, Africa, Central Asia and South East Asia. At the same time, there have been a strong move,et led by several developing countries themselves which strive for international peace coalitions such as that upheld by the Non Aligned Countires led by India, Egypt and former Yugoslavia.

With the increase in the divide between the developed and the developing societies, there has been an ever increasing realisation in many countries about giving primacy to health, human rights, environmental concerns as the overarching, shared realities which may present more pressing concern some to almost all the nations equally. Added to this is the historical context of globalisation itslef which has in a away led to rapid industrialisation and utilisation of the non renewable resources, bringing the world to the brink of exhaustion. In such a changed scenario, the discourse of political supremacy has moved farther away from a building of antagonistic international relations, and instead, there is a greater understanding between neighbouring countries, nations sharing maritime routes, to monitor their alliances with each other. Thus, we find that countries such as Britain and France which were once enemies during the 100 Years War have established closer diplomatic ties as two major economic powers in Europe.

However, this does not imply that There is always greater acceptance for the idea of all humankind united under one global political authority. Given the logic of international anarchy that marks most of the contemporary states which are motivated to guard their own sovereignty or claims to supreme authority, even in strategic alliances such as the Kyoto Protocol, we find that the major developed counties themselves have shrugged accepting global responsibility for regulating air emissions an have instead put greater burden on the developing countries which are by far only small stakeholders in the debate on Climate Change. Thus, one of the major blows to international relations in the present time has been the inability of the United States to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and take a firm stance on cutting down its use of non renewable sources of energy and carbon emissions. Another example of governments not adhering to the signed international treaty has been the border attacks by the People’s Republic of China on the Indian territories of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh which are claimed by the former as a part of the Chinese territory. This emerges as a violation of the mutual peace agreement between he Indian government and the Communist Party of China and it has been a constant bone of contention preventing any peaceful resolution of the border issue in South Asia.