Global approach to National policy

The existing system of world order is based on the sovereignty of individual nation-states. It seems clear to Richard A. Falk that a new normative order is called for if we hope to see the world wide prevalence of economic well being, political justice, and ecological health. In this volume, the author an alyzes why the fundamental problems of our time-war, poverty, repression, environmental decay-stem not only from the outmoded policies of individual states, but from the character of statist logic itself.

The United States involvement in Indo china-extending to tactics of counter insurgency and ecocide which Falk argues are illegal under the standards of international law-represents the em bodiment of statist logic in a global setting bereft of any "reliable means to interpret or implement restraints on national uses of military power." The Nuremberg tradition offers a moral and legal rationale for opposition to state policy by individuals, as in the cases. of Daniel Ellsberg, Anthony Russo, and Karl Armstrong. Unless popular forces committed to building a new world order are both vigilant and creative, govern ments will continue to evade the uni versalistic norms contained in the Nuremberg Principles.

Professor Falk also examines som of the roles that the superpowers and the United Nations play in international life, and offers a vision for the future in nich international relations could be better structured to advance these norms. The book as a whole serves both to illu minate past failures of the global system and to offer practical guidelines for the future.