Rule of Power or Rule of Law? [Paperback]

Arjun Makhijani (Author), Nicole Deller (Author), John Burroughs (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1891843176 | ISBN-13: 978-1891843174 | Publication Date: April 2003 | Edition: First Paperback Edition

Rule of Power or Rule of Law? assesses U.S. compliance with nine treaties addressing some of the most urgent global security threats, ranging from proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to global climate change.

The study documents the value of those treaties, but concludes that the United States, in an echo of the nineteenth century idea of Manifest Destiny, is undermining each of them, preferring instead to set itself above the law and relying mainly on its own military and economic might.

Editorial Reviews

Review

....provides a comprehensive overview of how ....the U.S. is systematically undermining the International Criminal Court.... -- Jayne Stoyles, former Program Director, NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court

...recommended as being a sober, extensively documented account of....dangerous trends in America's global policical character. -- James Cox, Midwest Book Review

A brilliantly conceived....study that documents the dangerous descent of the US government into the bottomless pit of global lawlessness. -- Prof. Richard Falk, University of California

This useful handbook by arms control proponents surveys lost opportunities and unfinished agenda of reducing security threats through negotiated agreements. -- Foreign Affairs, November/December 2003

About the Author

Nicole Deller, J.D., is an attorney with experience in commercial litigation and public international law, including advocacy of human rights and women's rights. She is a researcher and consultant for the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) and Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP).

Arjun Makhijani, PhD., is president of IEER. He is author or co-author of numerous books, reports, and articles on nuclear-related security, environment, and energy issues. He is a principal editor of "Nuclear Wastelands" (MIT Press, 1995 and 2000), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

John Burroughs, J.D., PhD., is executive director of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy. He is author of "The Legality of Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons: A Guide to the Historic Opinion of the International Court of Justice" (Transaction Publishers, 1998), and has published articles on nuclear weapons issues in "The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" and "The World Policy Journal."

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 227 pages
• Publisher: Apex Press; First Paperback Edition edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891843176
• ISBN-13: 978-1891843174
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #682,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cogent argument against stupidity and kooky conservatism!, August 14, 2005

By 

Danny G. (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rule of Power or Rule of Law? (Paperback)

What planet does the previous viewer come from? Virtually every international treaty proposed by the United Nations has been obstructed; watered-down; weakened, so its unenforceable for all practical purposes; simply ignored; or remains unratified, and scoffed at, by the government of the United States! The greatest economic and military power on earth!

Whether it concerns the rights of children, rights of women, World Court, international tribunals, global warming, world's oceans, militarization of outer space, landmines, underground nuclear testing, ad nauseam, our terribly misguided Federal government will do its best to put the interests of the very few before the vast majority! At what point does this become evil?

It took the last day the great Senator William Proxmire was in office, and more than a generation later, in order to simply ratify the Genocide Treaty for God's sake! What our government does, and doesn't do, in our name is simply beyond belief! It's a real shame such an important book remains so obscure! It should be required reading before a person graduates from college, and goes out into the real world!

3 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rule of Power or Rule of Law - Major Disappointment, August 12, 2004

By 

Cynthia "Cynthia" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rule of Power or Rule of Law? (Paperback)

Although "Rule of Power or Rule of Law" appears to be a comprehensive review of a number of security treaties that America has participated in, it is more propaganda than academic empirical study. While the reviews of treaties are probably useful at the undergraduate level, a careful read of the book and its footnotes reveals that there is very little empirical evidence that indicates that the United States has actively sought to work against the ratification or the development of such treaties because it simply wants to impose rules without being subject to them. The reality of world politics suggests that the risk of the use of nuclear, chemical and biological agents is not symmetric across all states; while fanatics might suggest that the U.S. is conspiring to use biological or chemical weapons proactively against other states, there are reasonable and logical fears that the United States has in supporting certain aspects of biological or chemical weapons treaties. And these reasons, for example, security and confidentiality of bio-defense, are more complex issues than the authors suggest. To the authors, the United States doesn't comply for the simple reason because it wants to set the rules but not abide by them. Of course, the issue is more complicated. I would not recommend this book for academic study as it fails to provide a more unbiased, academic and non-politically motivated understanding of the role of the United States in treaty-making.