Palestine and Kashmir: Geopolitics and US diplomacy?

Byline: Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi

Though US foreign policy legacy in the past and present represents a tilt towards the primacy of geopolitics instead of its advocacy for international law order, yet in the present situation where a resuscitation of HR norms is being felt globally, the Trump Administration cannot counterfeit the growing tides of international human rights regime backed by the norms of peace diplomacy. And given the lesson from history, the Trump Administration must realise the fact that in this 21st century the old rules of realpolitik need be replaced with liberal values that refute the old proxy wars version of the Cold War era. Washington's half-heated Mideast peace proposal and its indifference to the Kashmir issue are the gulfs that need to be bridged up via an active peace mediator US role since both Netanyahu and Narendra Modi are deliberately escalating tensions in the wake of the upcoming April elections.

The former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the mentor of realpolitik during the Cold War era in his book, 'The New World Order' has astutely suggested that for creating a stable position in the changing world order, Washington must uphold the paramount values of balance of power, legitimacy (international law, and human rights ) . Not surprisingly, geopolitics encompasses war and diplomacy, the means by which coalitions among states are organized. The rule of international law depends on a dominant coalition upheld by favourable geopolitical conditions; and on the extension of bureaucracy via state penetration, but now on a world-wide scale.

The authors of 'The Czech yearbook of international law Second Decade Ahead: Tracing Global Crisis' argue: ''The fact that the overestimation of the significance of military force in international politics and the underestimation of the significance of non-force components of power leads to the strengthening of the elements of chaos is clear from actions such as the intervention in Iraq and US' war in Afghanistan. These undermine the power and credibility of the hegemonic USA: a military victory without a concept for peace building can easily turn into a defeat''. The four peace doctrines incrementalism, gradualism, experimentalism and pragmatism are often a reasonable response to conditions of uncertainty and political polarization glaringly manifested in Middle East and South Asia. The Trump Administration must review its course of peace diplomacy. Hybrid forms of peace...