From the standpoint of both geopolitics and international law, the world is a mess.
Authoritarian Russia violated international law by invading Ukraine. Whats Russias goal? Perhaps President Vladimir Putin wants to rebuild the Russian Empire. Theres also an honest concern that China will invade Taiwan. Whats the end game? China wants to drive the US out of the Western hemisphere.
If you want to build a better future, sometimes you must look at the past. The first Cold War went on for decades, and each side was well armed. However, a major act of diplomacy occurred in 1975 the Helsinki Accords. Leaders of 35 states signed this agreement. The accord committed adversaries to mutual security and cooperation. Although both sides in Cold War I barely trusted one another, the accords demanded certain norms and allowed progress to be monitored and violations to be addressed. As Kai Hebel stated in his wonderful story, The Helsinki Final Act a Masterpiece of Modern Diplomacy, " impressive achievements make the Final Act a major act of modern diplomacy and an example of successful negotiations among enemies.
Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union at the time, had an agenda: making the post-World War II borders permanent and making Soviet rule over Eastern Europe permanent. However, the twin issues of human rights and democracy were woven into the agreement. The Accords stated that the borders couldnt be violated but could be changed by peaceful means and agreement, keeping open the unification of Germany and Europe as a whole, as stated by Hebel. It also comprised an ambitious set of measures to bring change on the other side of the Iron Curtain - trade, cultural contacts, and the freer movement of people and information. The Accords also contained a section on improving working conditions for journalists, and it pledged signatories to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, calling it an essential basis for peace. These provisions put liberal values firmly on the diplomatic agenda of East-West relations, and this meant that Soviet Russia had ideas to live up to.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carters national security advisor, said the provisions used ideas to help America in the Cold War. It gave Soviet Russia a set of ideals to strive for, ideals it didnt live up to. In the end, people turned against the Soviet model. Hebel stated how successful the provisions were: Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Final Act gave enormous encouragement to dissidents within the Soviet empire, who gathered thick dossiers recording violations of human rights that signatories could raise at follow-up meetings. All this challenged authoritarians and hardliners across Europe, who feared openness and transparency and conflated mutual obligations with an invitation to foreign meddling. And it helped to corrode the Soviet empire, thereby contributing to the peaceful ending of the Cold War. This became known as the Helsinki effect. The Final Act lives on today as the foundational text of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. With 57 members, it is the worlds largest regional security organization, spanning from Vancouver to Vladivostok. Although severely damaged by Russias invasion of Ukraine, the OSCE still functions. It continues to pursue a vast agenda devoted to international security, conflict prevention, human rights, and honest elections.
Helinski gives us an example of how quality diplomacy can defuse tensions amongst superpowers and how diplomacy can help ideas spread across national boundaries. Although it has nothing to do with war or increasing defense budgets, it served as an example of power projection. Can there be something like Helinski today? Right now, the three world powers China, the US, and Russia are far apart. However, a modern-day Helsinki could help us prevent war between the main powers, push human rights (and make China and Russia live up to their shortcomings), and prepare the way for something better. Whats better? A modernized version of Franklin Delano Roosevelts Four Policemen might emerge to enforce international law. How does it emerge? From a reform of the United Nations or a successor organization.
Jason Sibert is the Lead Writer of the Peace Economy Project
