1. Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty, 1996. Signed
by 164 nations and ratified by 89 including France, Great
Britain, and Russia; signed by President Clinton in 1996 but
rejected by the Senate in 1999.
The US is one of 13 nonratifiers
among countries that have nuclear weapons or nuclear power programs.
In
November 2001, the US forced a vote in the UN Committee on Disarmament
and Security to demonstrate its opposition
to the Treaty, and announced plans to resume nuclear testing for development
of new short-range tactical nuclear
weapons.
2. Antiballistic Missile Treaty, 1972. In December 2001,
the US officially withdrew from the landmark agreement--the
first time in the nuclear era that the US renounced a major arms control
accord.
3. Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, 1972, ratified by
144 nations including the US. In July 2001 the US walked
out of a London conference to discuss a 1994 protocol designed to strengthen
the Convention by providing for on-site
inspections. At Geneva in November 2001, Undersecretary of State
for arms control John Bolton stated that "the
protocol is dead," at the same time accusing Iraq, Iran, North Korea,
Libya, Sudan, and Syria of violating the Convention
but offering no specific allegations or supporting evidence to substantiate
the charges. In May 2002 Bolton accused
Cuba of carrying out germ-warfare research, again producing no evidence.
The same month, three Pentagon documents
revealed proposals, dating from 1994, to develop US offensive
bioweapons that destroy materials ("biofouling and
biocorrosion"), in violation of the Convention and a 1989 US
law that implements the Convention.
4. UN Agreement to Curb the International Flow of Illicit Small
Arms, 2001: the US was the only nation in opposition.
Undersecretary Bolton said the agreement was an "important initiative"
for the international community, but one that
the US "cannot and will not" support, since it could impinge on the
Constitutional right of Americans to keep and bear arms.
5. International Criminal Court (ICC) Treaty,1998. Set up
in The Hague to try political leaders and military personnel
charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Concluded
in Rome in July 1998, the Treaty was signed by 120
countries. Although President Clinton signed the Treaty in December
2000, he announced that the US would oppose it,
along with 6 others (including China, Russia, and Israel). In
May 2002 the Bush administration announced that it was
"unsigning"-- renouncing --the Treaty, something the US had never before
done, and that it will neither recognize the
Court's jurisdiction nor furnish any information to help the Court
bring cases against any individuals. In July 2002 the
ICC went into force after being ratified by more than the required
number of 60 nations, including Britain, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy and Spain (Russia now having signed but not
ratified).
Throughout 2002 and 2003,the
US worked to scuttle the treaty by signing bilateral agreements not to
send each
other's citizens before the ICC. By mid-2003 the US had signed
37 mutual immunity pacts, mostly with poor, small
countries in Africa, Asia, Central America, and Eastern Europe.
Threatened with the loss of $73 million in US aid, for
example, Bosnia signed such a deal. In July 2003 the Bush administration
suspended all military assistance to 35
countries which refused to pledge to give US citizens immunity before
the ICC.
6. Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969, which the US signed
but did not ratify. In May 2002, as the US was
unsigning the ICC Treaty, it simultaneously announced that it will
not be bound by the Vienna Convention, which outlines
the obligations of nations to obey other treaties. Article 18
requires signatory nations not to take steps to undermine
treaties they sign even if they do not ratify them.
7. The American Servicemen's Protection Act, 2002. The Bush
administration has been working overtime to nullify the
ICC. In November 2002 the President signed this Act, which not
only bars cooperation with the ICC and threatens
sanctions for countries that ratify it, but authorizes the use of "all
means necessary" to free any US national who might
be held in The Hague for trial before the ICC.
8. Land Mine Treaty, 1997. Banning the use, production or
shipment of anti-personnel bombs and mines, the treaty was
signed in Ottawa in December 1997 by 123 nations. President Clinton
refused to submit it for ratification, claiming that
mines were needed to protect South Korea against North Korea's "overwhelming
military advantage," a proposition denied
by the heads of North and South Korea in June 2000. In August
2001 President Bush rejected the treaty.
9. Kyoto Protocol of 1997, for controlling greenhouse gas emissions
and reducing global warming: declared "dead" by
President Bush in March 2001. No other country has chosen to
abandon the treaty completely. In November 2001 the
Bush administration shunned negotiations in Marrakech (Morocco) to
revise the accord, mainly by watering it down in an
attempt to gain US approval. In February 2002 Mr. Bush announced
a new plan to limit emissions--by measures that are
to be strictly voluntary. The US is the largest single producer
of emissions, generating 20 percent of the world's total.
10. International Plan for Cleaner Energy, 2001. The US
was the only nation to oppose this Plan, put forth by the G-8
group of industrial nations (US, Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany, France,
Italy,UK) in Genoa in July 2001. It would phase
out fossil fuel subsidies and increase financing for nonpolluting energy
sources worldwide.
11. UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982, and the 1994 Agreement
relating to Implementation of Part IX (Deep
Seabed Mining), establishing a legal framework for management of marine
resources and preservation of the marine
environment for future generations (including fish stocks, minerals,
international navigation, marine scientific research
and marine technologies). President Clinton submitted these treaties
to the Senate in 1994, but they have not been
ratified, as they have been by 135 and 100 countries respectively.
The primary obstacle to applying them remains the
absence of US ratification.
12. Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the UN Convention on Biological
Diversity, 2000: an international treaty
sponsored by 130 nations, seeking to protect biological diversity from
risks posed by genetically modified organisms
resulting from biotechnology. To date, it has been ratified by
13 countries and signed by 95 more, including United Kingdom, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Ireland, both Koreas, China, India, Indonesia, Argentina,
Mexico. The US has long argued that there is no reason for such a
protocol, has not ratified it, and is not expected to do so.
13. European Union (EU) Talks on economic espionage and electronic
surveillance of phone calls, e-mail, and faxes, May
2001. The US refused to meet with EU nations to discuss, even
at lower levels of government, these activities carried
out under its Echelon program. Meanwhile, the US escalated its
opposition to the EU's Galileo project, a global satellite
navigation system that would rival the US Global Positioning System
(GPS), funded and controlled by the Department of
Defense and serving thousands of corporate and individual users worldwide,
all monitored and recorded by the US. In
December 2001 Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the EU that
Galileo would have "negative consequences
for future NATO operations" and would interfere with GPS (in fact it
is planned to be compatible). In March 2002 the EU
announced that it would proceed with Galileo, slated to be operational
in 2008.
14. Multilateral talks sponsored by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, Paris, May 2001, on
ways to end "Harmful Tax Competition"-- tax evasion and money-laundering
operations carried out through off-shore tax
havens. The US refused to participate. The US, Treasury
Secretary Paul O'Neill stated, "will not participate in any
initiative to harmonize world tax systems."
In negotiations in Vienna
under the auspices of the UN, the US and the EU are also battling over
a proposed global
Convention Against Corruption. Europe wants the pact to cover
businesses and governments; the US wants it restricted
to governments.
15. World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia
and Related Intolerance, September 2001,
convened by UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
and the UN High Commission for Human Rights
and bringing together 163 countries. The US withdrew from the
conference, alleging anti-Israel and anti-semitic politics
on the part of many delegations. The final declaration of the
Conference expressed "concern about the plight ofthe
Palestinian people under foreign occupation" and "recognized the inalienable
right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination and to the establishment of an independent State
and . . . the right to security for all States in the
region, including Israel."
16. The illegal embargo against Cuba by the US, now 39 years old:
under Bush II, it has been tightened. In November
2002, the UN General Assembly passed, for the eleventh consecutive
year, a resolution calling for an end to the boycott
by a vote of173 to 3, the largest majority since the General Assembly
first debated the issue in 1992. As usual, the US,
Israel, and the Marshall Islands voted against the resolution.
17. The US quit UNESCO and ceased its payments for UNESCO's budget,
1984. The pretext was the New World
Information and Communication Order (NWICO), which was not a UNESCO
project but a proposal, backed by several groups
including UNESCO, for change in global communications designed to lessen
dependence of developing countries on
Western media, news agencies, and advertising firms. The NWICO
proposal was dropped in 1989; the US nonetheless
refused to rejoin UNESCO. In 1995 the Clinton administration
proposed rejoining; the move was blocked in Congress. In
February 2000 the US finally paid some of its arrears to the UN but
excluded UNESCO. President Bush stated that the
US would rejoin UNESCO in September 2002, when he appeared before the
UN to ask for a resolution authorizing him to
attack Iraq.
18. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague held
the US in violation of international law for "unlawful use of
force" in Nicaragua, 1986, through its own actions and those of its
Contra proxy army. The US refused to recognize the
Court's jurisdiction. A 1988 UN resolution that "urgently calls
for full and immediate compliance with the Judgment of
the International Court of Justice of 27 June 1986 in the case of 'Military
and Paramilitary Activities in and against
Nicaragua' in conformity with the relevant provisions of the Charter
of the United Nations" was approved 94-2 (US and
Israel voting no).
19. Optional Protocol, 1989, to the UN's International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (1966), aimed at abolition of
the death penalty and containing a provision banning the execution
of those under 18. The US has neither signed nor
ratified and exempts itself from the latter provision, making it one
of five countries that still execute juveniles (with
Saudi Arabia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria). China
abolished the practice in 1997, Pakistan in 2000.
20. UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women, 1979, ratified by 169 nations.
President Carter signed CEDAW in 1980, but the Senate blocked it. The
only countries that have signed but not ratified
are the US, Afghanistan, Sao Tome and Principe.
21. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, which protects
the economic and social rights of children. The US
has signed but not ratified. The only other country not to ratify
is Somalia.
22. Cairo Action Plan,adopted by 179 nations at the Cairo International
Conference on Population and Development in
1994, for establishing "reproductive health services and health care"
as a means for curbing population growth in
developing countries. In July 2002 the US cut off its $34 million
annual contribution to the UN family-planning program,
and in November withdrew its support of the Cairo Action Plan.
The State Department's population office stated that
the Plan implied a right to abortion and undermined the US international
campaign for sexual abstinence to avoid
pregnancy. "This hit like a bombshell. People were stunned,"
the senior UN official stated.
23. UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide, 1948. The US finally ratified in 1988,
adding several "reservations" to the effect that the US Constitution
and the "advice and consent" of the Senate are
required to judge whether any "acts in the course of armed conflict"
constitute genocide. The reservations are rejected
by Britain, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Mexico,
Estonia, and others.
24. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, 1987, ratified by the US in 1994. In the
UN Economic and Social Council in July 2002, the US tried to stop a vote
on a protocol to reinforce
the Convention. The protocol would establish a system of inspections
of prisons and detention centers worldwide to
check for abuses. The US claimed that the new plan would allow
monitors to gain access to American prisoners and
detainees--including, presumably, those held in US detention camps
in Guantanamo and Afghanistan, and now Iraq.
25. Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and Optional Protocols,
1963. The US is a long-time violator, by detaining
foreign nationals and failing to notify their governments. In
1999 two German citizens, Walter LeGrand and his brother
Karl, were put to death in an Arizona gas chamber. When arrested
in 1984 for the murder of a bank teller, the LeGrands were not informed
of their right to contact the German embassy, and German officials were
unable to provide legal aid.
In 1998 the World Court (the ICJ) ruled that the US had violated international
law in the case and asked the US Supreme
Court to stay the execution; the Supreme Court dismissed the request.
In 2002 Mexico petitioned the ICJ to grant stays of execution for 54 Mexicans
held on death row in the US, arguing that US municipal and state officials
are violating the
Vienna Convention. In August 2002 Mexican President Vicente Fox
cancelled a meeting with President Bush at his Texas
ranch to protest Alabama's execution of Mexican citizen Javier Suarez
Medina, who was denied the right to seek help
from his government when arrested in 1988.
After September 11, 2001
US violations of the Convention multiplied, with more than 600 "unlawful
combatants"
detained in Guantanamo and elsewhere without charges, denied all legal
rights, and held for possible trial before closed
military tribunals.
26. Agreement among all other 143 members of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) to help poor nations buy medicines
to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases, by relaxing
patent laws which keep prices of drugs beyond their
reach, concluded at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar in
November 2001. In December 2002, the US
single-handedly destroyed the agreement. Sources at the WTO in
Geneva said that the US decision came directly from
the White House, following intense lobbying from US pharmaceutical
companies.
Is the status of "we're number
one!" Rogue overcome by generous foreign aid given to less fortunate countries?
The three best foreign aid providers in 2002, measured by the aid percentage
of their gross domestic products, were
Denmark (1.01%), Norway (0.91%), and the Netherlands (0.79).
The worst was the US (0.10%) followed by the UK
(0.23%). A 2003 index, put together by the Center for Global
Development and Foreign Policy magazine and ranking the
contribution made by 21 developed nations to growth in the developing
world, placed the US 20th; only Japan ranked
lower.
The foregoing record of the
biggest Rogue of all excludes . . . the use of armed force against other
nations.
According to the Congressional Research Service (Report 96-119F, "Instances
of Use of United States Armed Forces
Abroad"), from 1798 through 1995 there were 251 instances, of which
only five were declared wars, when the US used
its armed forces abroad, in situations of military conflict or potential
conflict or for other than normal peacetime
purposes. For an account of US intervention abroad since the Second
World War, see William Blum, Rogue State (Common
Courage Press, 2000). Since the collapse of the Soviet Union,
the level of US military activism abroad has been
"unprecedented." "Since the end of the Cold War, the United States
has embarked on nearly four dozen military
interventions [during 1989-1999] as opposed to only 16 during the entire
period of the Cold War. Many of these
interventions, such as those in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo,
were launched into areas traditionally considered
marginal to US interests"
(United States Commission
on National Security/21st Century, New World Coming. American Security
in the 21st
Century, September 1999).