When we look at the actions of Russia, China, North Korea, Israel, Iran and now the US in recent years, there is a tendency to close our eyes tight, pull the covers over our heads and wait for the madness to go away. The rules-based order that we thought was here to stay after 1989 is no longer something we can rely on, if it ever was – as recent self- serving actions of the US president and his sycophantic gang make clear.
Gordon Brown’s piece (As Trump menaces Greenland, this much is clear: the free world needs a new plan – and inspired leadership, 20 January) provides a hopeful antidote to the chaos following the continuing breakdown of the postwar settlement. That settlement gave birth to international bodies such as the United Nations, Nato and others aimed at developing and maintaining democratic values. Brown wants to breathe new life into bodies such as these, essentially through the reiteration and rejigging of founding principles.
There is nothing in his proposals that fair-minded democrats could disagree with. The trick is how to get there and how to maintain the global order that continues to break down as powerful nations continue to dominate the weak.
It is only in Brown’s last few column inches that the enormous elephant in the room is acknowledged. He recognises that what has happened until now, and is likely to happen again without clear boundaries, is global elites agreeing how to balance their power.
The power of these elites has become widely recognised in recent years as enormous multinational bodies (eg big tech, big oil, big pharma, big defence) control elected representatives. But even worse is the increasing power of individual multibillionaires, whose wealth can exceed the GDP of medium-sized countries. This is not healthy.
It will take a lot more than fine words to get the corporate and individual genies back in their bottles. But that is where the serious effort needs to be, to curb their illegitimate influence before we try to give real meaning to whatever fine words we use to describe the role of new or repurposed global institutions. We certainly need to try to very soon, if it’s not already too late.
Alan Healey
Baschurch, Shropshire
• It isn’t, as Gordon Brown says, “in the past few weeks” that the promises of the US-led Atlantic charter have been broken, but throughout the last two years, when American presidents gave Israel carte blanche over Gaza and now the West Bank.
It should not be Greenland that “marks the end of the world looking to the US for leadership” after American presidents funded and aided Israel’s policy of collective punishment, leading to what most of the world regards as genocide against Palestinians. It should have been when it became clear in early 2024 that Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy was to destroy just about every building in Gaza regardless of injuries and loss of life.
Sadly, what most of the western world did was to remain silent or join in, like the UK, which disgracefully continued to sell vital parts for the Israel Defense Forces’ F-35 fighter jets instead of demanding sanctions against Israel. How his critics can accuse Donald Trump of breaking international law over Greenland when they did exactly that over Gaza beggars belief.
Now, their silence is deafening as Israel steps up its illegal settlement of the West Bank, demolishes remaining buildings in Gaza and East Jerusalem, limits humanitarian aid, continues deadly airstrikes during the supposed ceasefire and still refuses access to the world’s press. International law was abandoned long before the Greenland crisis.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool
• Gordon Brown says that “the US has abandoned its longstanding championing of the rule of law, human rights, democracy and the territorial integrity of nation states. Gone is its erstwhile support for humanitarian aid and environmental stewardship.” Seriously? Does he really believe that the US ever had these qualities? Has he forgotten Chile? Indonesia? Panama? Nicaragua? Guatemala? El Salvador? Afghanistan? Libya? Iraq? Iran? Israel/Palestine? Lebanon? The list is long.
America has been a malign influence, ruthlessly pursuing its own economic hegemony for over a century, all the while masquerading as the land of the brave, home of the free. Democratic regimes have been subverted and toppled. Coups financed. Hideous militias armed and trained. Vicious dictators enabled. The US has been aided in this by a parade of obsequious allies, led by our own country.
Gordon Brown needs to reread a bit of Noam Chomsky and give his head a wobble. We do indeed need to “choose diplomacy and multilateral cooperation over aggression and unilateral action”, but until the UN security council is reformed and the vetoes of its permanent members abolished, this will continue to be the sham that it has been since the second world war.
Steve Razzetti
Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria
• Gordon Brown, an honourable man, has strained hard with the current crisis and come up with … a charter. Sorry, Gordon, but don’t make me laugh. We have enough charters and declarations to fill a library. The critical issue is that they don’t get implemented – multilateralism seized up before Trump embarked on his campaign to test it to destruction. What is needed is a radical restructuring of the UN security council and an all-out diplomatic effort to reform the UN’s machinery so that it produces hard output – laws and judgments rather than “declarations” and waffle, while at the same time bringing more countries and interests into the decision-making process, making the UN more inclusive. That would provide the best hope of counterbalancing the stranglehold that the major powers have on the UN meeting its existing charter.
Neil Blackshaw
Alnwick, Northumberland
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