Short-term, long-term
Hehir, J. Bryan
WORLD WATCH J. Bryan Hehir SHORT-TERN, LONG-TERN PROPER MEANS IN THE GULF The situation in the Persian Gulf can be looked at as an immediate crisis, but also as a long-term learning experience...
...Nor do I believe that moving to the offense would be sustained by the international consensus which President Bush has skillfully assembled...
...First, the multilateral nature of the response, coordinated through the Security Council, moves the United Nations to center-stage in a fashion unthinkable during the cold war...
...Going offensive would mean going it alone...
...The response has short- and long-term significance...
...This coalition would surely never survive going beyond deterrence and defense...
...It is now in place: an embargo supported by six UN Security Council resolutions (including explicit Soviet support), supplemented by an Arab League condemnation of Iraq and the deployment of Arab, French, and English military forces in the Gulf...
...The U.S...
...There is no divine right for Americans or others to have access to oil at $20 per barrel...
...interpretation seems to be that only food distributed through recognized international relief organizations is allowable, and there must be a demonstrable humanitarian need-severe deprivation-before the relief organizations should be activated...
...Sovereignty-politically and morally-is a relative, not an absolute value...
...Today the role the Security Council is playing and the astute leadership provided by the secretary general in the Iran-Iraq war, in Afghanistan, and in Cambodia have combined to put the UN in a leadership role in the post-cold war era...
...First, an embargo should pass the same just-means test as any act of war...
...The double challenge posed by the Iraqi invasion constituted a "just cause" for a defense response...
...Second, unlike an invasion in Central Africa, the Iraqi move profoundly challenged the international economic order...
...I am not of the view that going to the offense-in case sanctions do not remove the Iraqis from Kuwait- would be justified...
...The disengagement of the superpowers from areas previously regarded as "vitally important" in the cold war competition may in fact make local conflicts more likely...
...and it has a much slimmer possibility of restoring the Emir to the throne...
...A defensive response was justified and the deployment of force at this writing (September 7) has been of a defensive, deterrent nature...
...Yet here again, one can acknowledge the problem and still recognize that by invading Kuwait and threatening Saudi Arabia, Saddam Hussein is challenging and threatening a larger framework of economic welfare than just America's consumptive energy habits...
...The terms of the embargo are a matter of some dispute on the question of food...
...The long-term significance of the response lies in its status as the first "post-cold war" crisis...
...policy, but the Bush administration wisely invested extensive energy in shaping an international consensus and framework for the policy...
...It is not justifiable, in my view, to create conditions of crisis-hunger and/or starvation-before humanitarian aid can be offered to Iraq...
...The reasonable expectation that U.S.-Soviet tensions will decline in the coming decade is not matched by expectations that regional conflicts will correspondingly diminish in number or intensity...
...Food and life are inextricably connected...
...Indeed determining an appropriate price for raw materials remains a very unfinished issue, morally, in international affairs...
...Third, the coalition assembled against Iraq in the Arab world has substantially redesigned the hierarchy in the Arab state system...
...Second, the U.S...
...case would be immeasurably strengthened by a clear policy on food and medicine which looks beyond the short-term advantage of maximum strategic pressure to the long-term issue of protecting basic humanitarian and moral principles in the post-cold war era.post-cold war era...
...Oil sets the Middle East apart in world affairs...
...Because it has this two-dimen-tional quality, policy measures should be evaluated in light of their short-term impact and long-term implications...
...In political terms Iraq's invasion of Kuwait posed a double challenge...
...The Iraqi invasion violated all three of these foundational ideas without justification...
...Each of these three ideas can be criticized or at least placed in per-pective...
...Its moral justification is much less clear...
...The U.S...
...the boundaries in question in the Middle East are the product of the age of colonialism, not divine decree...
...The first means test is that civilians should not be a "target population...
...The multilateral precedent so usefully in place both supports U.S...
...Just causes" must be pursued by "just means...
...Two arguments should be brought to bear against the failure to exempt food now on a humanitarian basis...
...nonintervention is challenged and violated in diverse ways in an interdependent world...
...The UN text is skillfully crafted to allow for maximum leverage against Iraq...
...My purpose is to attempt such an evaluation for two different aspects of the problem: its political meaning and its humanitarian character...
...The strategic logic of this interpretation-maximum pressure, including food-is clear...
...The Middle East is the exception...
...regional conflict there-because of Israel and oil-has always had global implications...
...WORLD WATCH J. Bryan Hehir SHORT-TERN, LONG-TERN PROPER MEANS IN THE GULF The situation in the Persian Gulf can be looked at as an immediate crisis, but also as a long-term learning experience for the "post-cold war era...
...First international order is based upon respect for state sovereignty, recognized boundaries, and observance of the principle of nonintervention...
...Such conflicts have local roots and long histories...
...it has a reasonable hope of achieving Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait...
...But one humanitarian aspect of the embargo has not received sufficient scrutiny...
...To say we value the latter means making the former available to women, children, the old, and the young...
...as a policy measure the embargo is in principle justified and much preferable to war...
...Three characteristics of the response to Iraq's move stand out...
...Many of these will be humanly tragic, but most will not be seen as globally crucial...
...case calling for respect for its hostages (and diplomats) is based on the same principle: certain classes of people should not be treated as pawns even under conditions of conflict or war...
...Second, a major display of U.S...
...military force has accompanied the multilateral response...
...The response has been driven by U.S...
...A case could be made for restricting delivery of food to Iraq to relief organizations, provided they are capable of the task...
...While medicines are clearly exempted, food is not exempted except for "humanitarian circumstances...
...This fact needs to be sharply distinguished from the first: the price of oil does not carry the normative weight of sovereignty, boundaries, and nonintervention...
...For all their limits and relativity, however, these three concepts sustain the values of a fragile peace, some order, and minimal justice in a world of states...
...Immediately, it has achieved one objective (deterrence against Iraqi inclinations to continue on to Saudi Arabia...
...In Korea the UN played a role in spite of the superpower rivalry...
...On the other hand, if the sanctions can be successfully pursued, the new configuration of power might provide a foothold for an initiative in diplomacy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian question...
...actions thus far and serves to contain future options...
Vol. 117 • September 1990 • No. 16
