From Rev. Fr. Emmanuel-Lugard Nduka, PhD
On Thursday the 24th of February, the world woke up with the rude realization that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has begun. For the past two weeks or more, the Biden administration through its elite intelligence reports, kept the world alerted of the impending invasion, which has happened as predicted.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has evoked to consciousness the world history before the formation of the United Nations. Before the formation of the United Nations, powerful nations were loose to usurp and take-over weaker nations at their whims and caprices. It was a world that exalted the maxim that “might is right.”
But the world saw and witnessed the brutal consequences of such a world in the wake of the World War 11 when Germany under the dictatorship of Hitler occupied many independent nations in Europe.
During the war, the world experienced the dark side of humanity as many innocent people were gassed and starved to death in Concentration Camps littered all over Europe. On the account of this, the world came together and invoked the better angels of humanity by fighting and defeating Hitler and the Nazi regime.
To forestall the repeat of this brazen callousness by some nations, the Community of Nations gathered and formed the United Nations on October 24th, 1945, in San Francisco, California USA. The Charter of the United Nations attests to this fact “We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our life-time has brought untold sorrow to mankind…” Going further, the Article 2 no. 4 of the United Nations noted that “All members shall refrain in their International relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.” (Cf. Charter of the United Nations and statute of the International Court of Justice, San Francisco, 1945.)
However, the stark reality is that some nations have renegaded on the obligations of the Charter of the United Nations. These lawless nations are rogue states, and they pose a danger to the world peace. Christopher Preble noted that “…rogue state pertains to violations of state of sovereignty.” (Preble, c. 2005.
The Bush Doctrine and “Rogue” States). Akan Malici noted in his list of rogue nations, countries such as Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Syria (Malici, A. 2009. Rogue states: Enemies of our own making?, Psicologia Politica, 39, 39-54). Recently, the former American Secretary of States Mike Pompeo called China a rogue state by citing border attacks against India (Cf. Hindustan Times, June 20, 2020).
Nonetheless, the unacceptable behavior of Russia by invading Ukraine has made Russia a rogue nation by going against the norms of the United Nations Charter and by the violating the sovereign integrity of Ukraine.
Christopher Preble argued that “Iraq clearly acted as a rogue state when it invaded Kuwait in 1990, and the International Community responded with near-unanimity; Saddam was expelled from Kuwait by a group of nations acting with the official sanction of the United Nations.”
As the world leaders condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one powerful nation has remained silent. And that nation is China. China has been in hand and glove with Russian leader Vladmir Putin.
Some experts have adduced that one of the reasons for the tacit support of China for Russian aggression might be the status of nations such as Tibet subjugated by China.
China has unilaterally abrogated The Sino-British Declaration of 1984. Chinese leader Xi Jinping does not respect international agreements. The seeming freedom of Hong Kong, which has an end date of 2047 has been a source of concern to China as it is likely to take over the country, and this is in line with the template Russia is about to implement in Ukraine.
