By Dr Bertrand Ramcharan
Seventh Chancellor of the University of Guyana.
Former Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science
The contemporary clash of world powers is being felt in the political, technological, economic, security, legal, human, and cultural spheres. There are crises of world order in all of them. And, at the end of the day, the situation will only be ameliorated through dialogue and negotiations between, especially, the USA and China.
Political World Order: When it comes to political world order, and the structure of international society, the major powers, USA, China, and Russia, have clashing political systems that each is adhering to. China has rule by the Communist Party and is determined to stick to its system and to resist any call for change. The USA and Russia hold periodic elections. In the USA there is alternance of parties in government. In Russia, the governing party has invariably won elections. How does one deal with this situation?
In international law, the principle of self-determination is widely recognized as an imperative norm of international public policy, and it embraces the right of each state to freely choose its political, economic, and social system. The USA advocates the existence of universal values, but China and Russia deny their existence. There is thus a tension here between the right of each country to self-determination, and the right of other countries to call for respect for universal values.