On the 26th and 27th of February, the Russian Federation hosted over 500 participants from more than 130 countries in Moscow to challenge Western hegemony in the Second Congress of the International Russophile Movement (MIR).
UWI documents in the following days some speeches delivered in the congress. Today we publish the presentation of Erdem İlker Mutlu, professor at the Hacettepe University in Ankara.
A Multipolar World for International Peace and Neutrality
By Prof. Dr. Erdem İlker Mutlu, Hacettepe University (Ankara), Faculty of Law
Today I would like to explain my view on the relationship between sovereignty, peace, neutrality and multipolarity. Each concept has a wide range of definition. Therefore, I am going to proceed with their usual classical meanings and Weberian approach to state theory.
Focusing on the relationship of sovereignty with state powers through the perspective of Weberian approach to state theory, it is no surprise to find the equity that sovereignty brings a state the monopoly of violence attached with legality and legitimacy. The state, therefore, becomes the sole authority within its physical sovereign area. This authority is not questionable. If the state violence goes beyond its jurisdictional area physically and mentally, the matter becomes a question of international law.
For this reason, the state is now a subject that creates law and [dis]order on international plane. The state auto-limits its jurisdiction in the international arena by declaring its own practice and its belief in what the law is. Under the condition of non-existence of other sovereign against it, it will not see any harm in expanding its area. For instance, before 1899 Peace Conference of Hague, a powerful state could hardly favor a status of peace with a weaker counterpart. Therefore, the question appears to be the availability of a proper defense against a powerful state challenging physical borders.
However, in some cases, with the invention of colonialism, the game has changed. A group of states, specifically colonial powers and their allies, have established a structure to create a new hegemony on some other parts or the entire world. This structure has intimidated or destroyed all opponents without hesitation.
Therefore, for a state without a defending power or powerful allies, the conclusion of a colonial attack may end up with fatal results. For centuries, the merciless colonialism has destroyed many civilizations, including those existed on the lands of major powers of today.
Today, one can hardly deny the still existence of the historical roots and similarities between the acts of Western Allies and colonial masters of pre-19th century. When two or more former colonial powers come together, the behavior of this alliance turns into creating a world of ally-centrism and unipolarity. Because, when sovereignty and power are on one side, there is nothing to prevent it from developing by creating its own legality and legitimacy. Moreover, if the power held by hegemony is brutal, the socio-political ends will get closer to walls of a world of globalist totalitarianism. Therefore, in today’s world, unipolarity is not a danger itself, however it may become the Dr. Frankenstein creating a Global Leviathan.
Multipolarity, contrary to all this picture, creates a world of counterforces that will thwart each other’s limitless expansion efforts. Therefore, in a world of multipolarity, we can talk about an existing practical international law, where sovereigns comply with their obligations to each other. These obligations also include, primarily, respect to status of peace and keep away from conflict. Otherwise, the post-1945 structural design of the world through a United Nations representing a multipolar world remains fictive. None of the bodies can avoid infant war victims.
This Global Leviathan, using proxy combatants, causing mass civilian causality in the conflict, is not a recent fact. My country, Türkiye, since 1980s, has lost thousands of citizens’ lives under terrorist attacks backed by this imperial -hegemonic structure. Another proxy in Donbass region since 2014 targets civilians and destroyed thousands’ lives. Therefore, less than a decade later, finding civilians in Gaza suffering from heavy bombings with the existence of Global Leviathan is no surprise and all these similar attacks leave no room for doubt on the necessity for a multipolar world. In order to save the peoples of Minor Asia, Middle East, Caucasus, Donbass and many other places of the planet, the victims of war need allies who have proportionate powers with aggressors. Otherwise, the aggressor allies, which have no mercy, put forth their own narration of law and legitimacy in international order.
Multipolarity is also a prerequisite for neutrality of third states. The third states of a conflict always feel more comfortable to stay neutral without pressure of a major power. In today’s conditions, there is no doubt that the Western allies expanding their hegemony over the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Eastern Asia put pressure on third states, which prefer to stay neutral against conflicts. These allies, under the conditions of multipolarity, cannot create a sphere of hegemony to oppress the third states which are willing to stay neutral. Multipolarity welcomes neutrality of states which do not want to get involved in the conflicts on behalf of expanding hegemonic structures. Therefore, in other words, multipolarity also preserves other parts of world to become expanded lands of ongoing conflicts.