John Nicholas Gray Quotes
Preserving peace does not always coincide with the promotion of human rights.
John Gray [Political Scientist], English Political Scientist, “Global Utopias and Clashing Civilizations,” 23rd Martin Wright Memorial Lecture delivered at the Royal Institute of International Affairs on October 14,1997
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In 1799 the same article appeared again under the name of Dr. Benjamin Rush who may have plagiarized the original or, as some argue, may have actually authored the 1792 article.
Charles Wilkes, a Union Navy Captain enforcing the naval blockade of the South, intercepted a British mail ship in the Caribbean and discovered two Confederate diplomats on board. He took them into custody to the cheers of Congress. England, however, was outraged that passengers—diplomats—on one of their ships was seized after boarding. This was technically an act of war. Abraham Lincoln, to the distress of many in Congress ordered the Confederate diplomats released explaining with this quotation.
The United States Senate must ratify all treaties before they can become effective. The Senate has been very reluctant to ratify treaties where the U. S. government or any of its citizens could come under the jurisdiction of any legal entity which did not abide by all the rights citizens are guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution. As a result, we do not recognize the World Court and the Treaty of Rome for example. The latter is the one that gives the World Court jurisdiction over a high level official who commits war crimes even in his own country. The result is that many dictators who do not want to be constrained by international law, do not sign the treaty fending off any pressure to do so by pointing to the United States. But Rothkopf and others who agree with him have not yet been able to come up with a mechanism that will assure American Constitutional rights to Americans who might be involved with the World Court and allow the court to punish the dictators who abuse their own population. The French would like their laws and constitution to control. The Russians, theirs. The Chinese, theirs. Every American public official takes an oath to defend The Constitution. That is their primary duty. Foreign policy and punishing international war criminals must take a lower priority.
3rd Earl Russell of Kingston. The military weak nations agreed with him, but the militarily strong ones did not—especially America and England which had the Atomic Bomb when others did not.
John Nicholas Gray is an English political philosopher with interests in analytic philosophy and the history of ideas. He retired in 2008 as School Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gray contributes regularly to The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman, where he is the lead book reviewer. He is an atheist.
