In Washington’s ‘rules-based order’, its own rules come first

A group of 12 US Republican senators sent a letter to the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan last month, threatening repercussions if the court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials for suspected war crimes on Gaza (“Letter by US politicians to ICC undermines international law”, May 8).

This is not the first time the United States has tried to stop the ICC from doing its job. Khan’s predecessor Fatou Bensouda was sanctioned by the Trump administration after she launched an investigation into whether US military forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The investigation has since been shelved.

The US always talks about the “rules-based order”. However, it is not a party to the Rome Statute and thus does not recognise ICC jurisdiction. Further, it has also not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (Unclos), yet it keeps an active interest in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Protests in support of the Palestinian people are currently roiling university campuses across the US.

The world is watching how the US is responding.

Is the US suffering from a form of schizophrenia? Maybe the simple explanation is that so long as the rules are in its favour, they will be followed, or else they will simply be ignored without any hesitation.