Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness in a Lawless World

Abstract

Contrary to the assumption in some quarters that international law and institutions could, by themselves, check anarchy and enforce order, events of the past few years have exposed the fragility of contemporary collective security arrangements. Due largely to the lack of a social contract, binding nations to a uniform code of conduct, the state of nature which organized government managed to contain at the national level has returned with a vengeance. In the increasingly lawless world, states that have the power to do so resort to unilateral action. “Rogue” nations and unruly individuals often follow suit by renouncing obligations and rules of civilized conduct. The weak nations’ (and/or insurgent groups’) defiance of the powerful states frequently leaves the latter with the option of either appealing to the “conscience of the international community” or taking the law into their own hands.

We have captured 689 (terror suspects) and handed over 369 to the United States. Various Pakistani individuals have earned bounties totalling millions of dollars. Those who habitually accuse us of ‘not doing enough’ in the war on terror should simply ask the CIA how much prize money it has paid to Pakistanis.

—Former Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf (p. 237 of his memoir, In the Line of Fire)