It is just 75 years since today's 'Western liberal democracies' were colonising and slaughtering people all over the earth. The international human rights law and norms that holds them - and new aspirers - in check today is very fragile. We must protect it or we will be broken.

World leaders of 1945 had seen hell. Humanity had seen hell: the scourge of war and untold sorrow. Millions of people dead from the wars and genocide of colonisers. Even the creators of hell were tired. So they came together to form the United Nations.

This was the beginning of the 'global' world: a world where no country could claim an absolute right to do as it pleased - especially when it comes to the protection of human rights. Nationalism had caused the world a lot of headache. And International human rights was born.

Three principal documents - and the institutions built for them - continues to hold this world together:

- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- The International COVENANT on Civil and Political Rights
- The International COVENANT on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

Almost every country has either adopted, signed, or accepted these three documents. And yet, almost every country resists complying with the obligations in these documents.

But every country knows that they are being monitored by the others: so, they never stray too far away.

This is the reason a global world is still very important; it allows a system of constant checks and balances between countries to prevent the kind of mass-scale slaughter and genocides that were happening just 75 years ago, a time when any country could invade another at will.

In the last few decades, the most powerfully armed countries like North Korea, Russia, and China have attempted to delegitimise this system for a while, but they have been resisted by 'western liberal democracies' and by a lot of less powerful countries too: also through the UN.

But one western liberal democracy has also generally resisted this system: America.

America believes in the supremacy of America over all else. Hence, it has generally and constantly refused to surrender itself to monitoring by other countries through the UN.

This was not really a problem for a long time as long as American leaders believed (or pretended to believe) in these ideals and in an international humanity. And so, America could get away with its invasion of other countries because it was 'spreading democracy'.

Of course, the other powerful countries - who also wanted to invade other territories - have always been upset by the exceptionalism granted to America. They understood that America was using democracy as a cover to start wars for its economic interests, and they wanted same.

But, again, as long as America believed (or pretended to believe) in a system of global check and balances, the international system that was created in 1945 continued to thrive, protecting less powerful countries, not in ideal ways, but far better than the last 100 years.

Enter Donald Trump, nationalism, and the delegitimisation of the international legal order.

This is the bigger problem for us all: today's American philosophy has expressly given a middle finger to the international legal order, and to the global system of checks and balances.

And now, countries like Russia and China no longer feel constrained by the international norms because, it is now 'Make each country great again'. Russia can take Ukraine - or Ghana. China can erase Hong Kong - or Zambia. America and the West have lost legitimacy to stop them.

When Trump defunds or pulls out of international agreements, he is weakening the int'l legal order; making the strong stronger and the weak weaker. This rolls back 75 years of human cooperation and protections against the era of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

Without a fair and equally applicable int'l legal order, there will be nothing like equality in trade or disputes. There will only be 'might is right', and only the countries with nuclear weapons will have a place at the table. Sorry, but black people don't have any such country.

This fevered fantasy of every country in the world being equally great, without the oversight of an int'l legal order, is just that - a fantasy. America will be great, China will be great, a few other countries too. The rest of us will be no more than vassals - with no UN vote.

This is the true meaning of Nationalism. This is the true meaning of Make America Great Again - a return to the world of might was right, a world where powerful countries had no oversight from other countries, a world where invasions could happen unchecked, a world of warfare.

https://twitter.com/NotATweeter16/status/1266442870338334721?s=20