CIAO DATE: 03/2011
June 2010
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
The international strategic environment can be seen as having seven dimensions (political, economic, physical, military, social and cultural, scientific and technical, and normative), each with an interlocking relationship with the others. Law within the normative dimension is the focus. The optimum conditions for international law arise in a multi-polar equilibrium. A single superpower can do as it pleases; with two there was stalemate. Power can ignore law and there is a perception that the United States, under the Bush administration in particular, did so in pursuit of its interests.
Resource link: A Bright Future for International Law? [PDF] - 158K