Donald Trump seems to have started creating a new global order where might is right and the US, under his stewardship, can do and get away with whatever he desires. He has raised tariffs on aluminium and steel imports to which the EU says Trump’s tariffs will trigger firm countermeasures; on the other side an Elon Musk led group makes a $97 billion bid for the control of OpenAI; Trump says Hamas should free all hostages by midday Saturday or ‘Let hell break out’; Trump loosens enforcement of a US law banning bribery of foreign officials. His other latest assault is on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the form of imposing sanctions on it.
His last administration had also slapped sanctions on the ICC over its investigations into potential war crimes in Afghanistan, including by the US, and into the actions of Israeli forces. But his new executive order has gone even further as it attacks the fundamentals of the court endangering its functioning. The ICC has incurred the wrath of Trump this time for its actions against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whom it has charged with war crimes for the killings of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and issued an order to arrest him. When Trump used his clout to force Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fi re deal prepared by the Joe Biden administration, it was believed he would not hesitate to act against Israel, if needed, to bring peace in the Middle East. But, soon after assuming presidency, he showed his true colours by proposing to take over Gaza in the name of rebuilding it and forcing the Palestinians to find new homes in Egypt and Jordan. Such large scale displacement of people has very few, if any at all, parallel in history.
Also Read
No wonder, Israel has hailed Trump’s proposal for packing off Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan. What Trump has done to punish the ICC for trying to bring Netanyahu to book poses a threat to the international system of justice. In reality, the US never joined the ICC, fearing scrutiny of its own actions and those of its allies. Joe Biden made the US position hollow and hypocritical when he justified the arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin issued by the ICC, while attacking as “outrageous” the one issued for Netanyahu. Now what Trump is doing to undermine the ICC seems like transactional and coercion replacing diplomacy. He has already dismantled USAID, thereby showing to his people that he wants to protect the American tax payers’ wealth. USAID is known as a shrewd, low-cost foreign policy tool. It cost less than 1% of the federal budget in the 2023 fiscal year – and many claim that much of the money went back to the US to enrich private enterprises and individuals.
Similar to all UN organizations, USAID also immensely benefitted government officials in other countries who remained favourable to programs launched by the US. Now that USAID has been trashed, Trump has loosened US laws that were checks on bribing foreign officials. All these roundabout moves make absolute sense to whosoever takes the trouble to connect the dots. Critics have always wondered how effective the ICC can really be in its work of bringing war criminals to justice, since the process has been slow, painful and often unsuccessful at the best of times. However, Trump’s attack shows it is an unnecessary evil that he thinks can be done away with. Now an argument against Trump’s wishes will not hold water. Even if 79 parties to the global tribunal have said Trump’s decision to sanction the ICC increases the “risk of impunity” for serious crimes.
In a joint statement these countries – about two-thirds of the court’s total membership – affirmed support for the ICC and said that sanctions would weaken international law after Trump signed the executive order sanctioning the court for investigating Israel. Such measures, they said, threaten to erode the international rule of law, which is crucial for promoting global order and security.
They were joined by dozens of other nations, including the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Brazil and Bangladesh. The US had long projected itself as the guarantor of international order that promotes human rights and rule of law at great cost to the American people. The world now has to accept the challenge thrown by Trump. He may be seen as making the US inward looking while caring for the interests of American citizens. Should anyone complain about that, the answer is very simple: other nations have to prepare themselves to face a new world order.
