MAINTENANCE OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY AND GREAT POWER HYPOCRISY: INSIGHTS FROM THE IRAQI AND UKRANIAN INVASIONS
Abstract
The creation of the international system was made possible through a network of legal norms that regulates the activities of States. It is upon this array of international norms that peace loving States have depended on to interact, relate, and transact for the benefit of their citizens at home and abroad, in an atmosphere of peace, cooperation and friendliness. However, activities of the great powers (like the United States and Russia) have posed considerable threats to the regulating effects of these norms. More importantly, the great powers have acted in ways (unilaterally) that have weakened international legal norms, to the point of making it redundant on some occasions (like in the invasions of Iraq and Ukraine). It is against this background that the paper interrogates the maintenance of international peace and security and great power hypocrisy. By adopting documentary method of data collection and political realism, the paper finds that the pursuit of national interests by the great powers at the expense of other members of the international system led to the undermining of the international legal order, thereby, posing a threat to international peace and security, which they pledged to protect and maintain. The article also finds that the great powers adopt a chosen justice technique in the pursuit of their interest. The paper therefore concludes and recommends that universal justice through multilateralism must be a desideratum for States’ relations in the international system.
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