U.N. member states as of February 2022: 193
From the transcript of Ukrainian Ambassador Sergei Kyslytsya’s remarks to the U.N. Security Council a week ago Tuesday:
“The internationally recognized borders of Ukraine have been and will remain unchangeable. Ukraine unequivocally qualifies the recent actions by the Russian Federation as violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. … President Putin, who has taken a decision that we discuss today as a threat to the rules-based order, to the U.N. Charter, in particular its Article 2, as well as to international peace and security.”
Particularly relevant in the Ambassador’s reference to the U.N. Charter is Article 2’s Clause 3, on wars of conquest: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
Obviously, the actual U.N. members have frequently fallen short of the Charter’s aspirations over the 78 years since its signature. In the last decade especially, after a long period of peace among great powers, even close allies found it difficult to sustain a sense of common interest. But however far governments have fallen short of the Charter’s goals, they have almost invariably respected its ban on wars of conquest. Only once before last week’s attack on Ukraine (in Saddam Hussein’s 1990 attempt to annex Kuwait to Iraq) has one U.N. member state attempted to erase another from the map. Three thoughts on the events since:
(1) Respect for the ban on wars of conquest is at the foundation of any international aspiration, whether related to peaceful settlement of disputes among countries, scientific and medical progress, common action against environmental threats, prosperity and reduction of poverty, or reduction of the risk of war.
(2) The breach of this principle in the attack on Ukraine last week is very rare in modern history and exceptionally dangerous, in that it was ordered not by the rogue dictator of an isolated minor power but by a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. Should it succeed, we may well expect more such events and a much more dangerous world. Should it fail, the taboo on wars of conquest will be greatly strengthened, and future attempts far less likely.
(3) The Biden administration and partner democracies have responded with a model of muscular, calm, and principled cooperation, first in attempting to dissuade the Russian government from attacking Ukraine, and then in their coordinated response, combining extensive financial and other sanctions with practical and moral support for Ukraine. The contrast between this response and the self-pitying folly of “America First” movements — in the 1940s or the 2020s — is stark, reminding us that isolationism makes the world more dangerous and ultimately Americans themselves less safe; and that when defense of international order and the principles Ambassador Kyslytsya cites prove necessary, the world’s democracies have many and powerful options.
Ukrainian Ambassador Kyslytsya at the U.N. Security Council last week.
The U.N. Charter full text.
Current policy review
NATO summarizes military aid to Ukraine.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control reports the addition of four individuals to the “Specially Designated Nationals” list.
The European Union itemizes current sanctions.
The U.K. sanctions.
Australia sanctions.
New Zealand on Ukraine.
Japan sanctions.
Korea on Ukraine.
Canada sanctions.
Some relevant PPI readings
PPI President Will Marshall on the meaning of Putin’s war on Ukraine.
A reprise of our Trade Fact launch last October, “Liberalism is Worth Defending.”
And Paul Bledsoe on ways to undo Europe’s natural gas dependency on Russia.
Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.
Ed returns to PPI after working for the think tank from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.
Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank ProgressiveEconomy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.
Ed is the author of Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy (2007). He has published in a variety of journals and newspapers, and his research has been cited by leading academics and international organizations including the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. He is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia Universities and a certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.