Right Pulse

From the UK Telegraph on why Russia, South Africa, China and a bunch of other nations voted against imposing sanctions on Mugabe:

China’s investment in Africa has increased hugely recently, but the real reason for both these vetoes isn’t economic: it is fear of the precedent that would be set if the UN explicitly authorises action against a country because it is governed by a tyrannical autocrat….there is a tacit pact between the world’s dictatorial regimes to ensure that they can continue to deny their people basic democratic rights: they know they themselves will become vulnerable if it is established as a principle of the UN that there is a limit beyond which governments are not entitled to oppress their own people.

Readers should also note that Indonesia, as a member of the Security Council, abstained from the vote. So to the solution:

John McCain, the Republican candidate in America’s presidential election, has suggested an alternative to a UN deadlocked by the vetoes of China and Russia.

He proposes a “league of democracies”, in which nations committed to what might be termed “the Western system” would come together and use their joint power to try to advance more enlightened forms of governance. It wouldn’t be an alternative to the UN. But it would tackle some of the problems which vetoes from the tyrannies on the security council ensure that the UN cannot.

There are many difficulties with turning McCain’s vision into reality. Yet the failure of the UN, like the impotence of the G8, which was also on display last week, requires serious debate on how to remedy the ineffectiveness of global institutions