Humanitarianism in Crisis
The twentieth century ushered in an era of human rights with revolution of noble concern. The universal declaration of human rights and documents like the Geneva conventions and genocide resulted into modern international legal order. The revolutionary moral story can be explained well alongside prominence of humanitarian organizations and corresponding rise. Enthused by idealism, committed to solitary and moved by campaigns of compassion set to feed the hungry, settle refugees and aid the oppressed. St. Paul, in the Holy Book states we are one undivided by race, political ideology, sex and ethnicity. However, according to David Rieff no such thing like international or global community exists. In his view, the world is characterized by genocides and wars or simply, it is a slaughterhouse. I am in agreement with the view point of David that no such thing as international community exists.
To start with, David, in A Bed for the Night questions shared values uniting countries like the USA and China, Denmark and Indonesia, Japan and Angola among other examples. David presents an example of the ever rising cold war between Russia and USA over shared values. David does not mince words, he indicates the current world is soaked with blood. In fact genocides and massacres define the day. Warlords and tyrants torture, murder and maim at will. There are thousands of gunmen who are oppressive and they rape at will and they go without punishment. According to David, the list is endless, civilians raid and kill their counterparts in the name of religious and ethnic cleansing. East and Central Africa, Kosovo as well as the Middle East are good examples of battlefields where there are thousands of corpses rotting in battlefields.
Despite the killings, David does not see any valuable moral concern. Although he acknowledges the work carried out by humanitarian organizations, he does not see any hope for the future. He indicates that governments and other humanitarian organizations disappear once things turn sour.
Urquhart seconds the argument made by David: he indicates that a community is comprised of accepted conduct and rule, common responsibility for all, institutions that are effective and shared view of the future. According to Urquhart, a working community gradually emerges through practical and precedent experiment. If there was an international community in existence, it would follow the procedure, unfortunately though, no such community exists.
Furthermore, Wednt and Snidal agree with scholars aforementioned that an international theory does not exist4. The authors are in agreement on an international scale, there are only subsidiary works and minor figures. In actual sense, the pre-assumed international community is scattered, in majorly inaccessible to the layman as well as unsystematic. While there is the shared belief that an international community exists, it is marred with everlasting wars and the continued conflicts between neighboring nations, geographical regions and rival nations.
To conclude, this paper is in support of the argument that is posed by David Rieff, no such thing as an international or global community exists. According to David, the world is characterized by genocides and wars or simply, it is a slaughterhouse. This is true since if there has to be an international community, it should accept the conduct and rules, common responsibility for all, institutions that are effective and the shared view of the future. However, the assumed international community never follows such procedure which is why I second the view of David that no such thing like international or global community exists.
Let all your academic assignments be completed by a well reputable company for your success.At PremiumEssays.net,we offer the best services to our clients.Matched with the experience we have so far,we offer nothing but the best to our customers.
Bibliography
David, Rieff. A Bed for the Night. New York, Simon and Schuster, 2002.
Kommers, Donald. “A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis”. America 188, no. 6 (2003):26-27
Snidal, Duncan and Wendt, Alexander. Why there is International Theory Now. International Theory 1, no. 1 (2009): 1-14.
Urquhart, Brian. The International Community: Fact or Fiction? Mascaleter International 1,(2010):1-10.