Putin of Russia[/caption]Carol Forsloff---“I don’t rule this out,” Putin said during a televised interview with First Channel, a Russian federal television network, and the Associated Press. “But I want to draw your attention to one absolutely principled issue: In accordance with the current international law, a sanction to use arms against a sovereign state can be given only by the U.N. Security Council.”
With these words, the Russian President Vladimir Putin, offers what humanitarians could accept as a direction, even though it is of far greater difficulty to get nations to come together and agree, as that did not prevent World War I, where the League of Nations had enacted guidelines to prohibit terror and violence on a broad scale directed at helpless civilians. Yet those guidelines did not end the march towards war in the era of Adolph Hitler.
This offers the principle of a humanitarian solution to a political problem, that some believe is the only way to permanently address the problems of conflict. Others, like Antonia Cassese, tell us while utopia may be difficult, the United Nations does have some qualities that can facilitate solutions to humanitarian questions during conflicts.
It also allows the opportunity to focus on building trust and cooperation while it elicits the conscience to examine the issues of poverty, ignorance, and regional conflicts that ignite the worst kinds of behavior that include attacks on civilians.
But will the nations agree? Some scholars would likely point out the problems the nations have had before in making accurate determinations of violations of international law, then following through by taking action to end them.
