Noam Chomsky Quotes

There is a movement to get an international criminal court in the world, voted for by hundreds of states-but with the noticeable absence of the United States of America.

I had been brought up in the law and had this sort of instinct that international law operates and was there to protect principles and not to be the plaything of power and might - which I now know, of course, to be an absolute nonsense. International law should be spelled l-o-r-e.

Over many years, the United States has worked to persuade and compel governments around the world to abide by the rules. By spurning our own rules, we put that effort at risk.

As a conservative power, the United States has a vital interest in upholding and expanding the reign of law in international relations.

Well, there's been plenty of ultimatums, and one thing that we better be very clear is that we can't continue to have the kind of defiance of the United Nations, the defiance of the international community that we've had.

The United Nations has become a place where many countries seek to achieve a lynching of the United States by resolution.

Just as the United States doesn't like others to take charge, other countries also don't like the United States to play a dominant role in the United Nations.

International institutions like the UN can only be as effective as its members allow it to be.

The United States of America is a threat to world peace. Because what America is saying is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council, you can go outside and take action and violate the sovereignty of other countries. That is the message they are sending to the world. That must be condemned in the strongest terms.

The rules that organizations such as the United Nations rely on were not written by the majority of the world’s people, who have long seen powerful states declare exceptions for themselves. Newly powerful states will challenge this system --

International law has no simple enforcement mechanism.

U.N. Security Council resolutions are only as effective as their enforcement.

It is rather astonishing that the United States does not play ball with the ICC, considering our country was the beacon of the idea of an international criminal court.

If we want to expect something from this [Barack Obama] administration, it is not to be weak, to be strong to say that "we don't have evidence," that "we have to obey the international law", that "we have to go back to the Security Council and the United Nations".

It is not just for a few states to sit and veto global approvals.

The U.N. can meet and discuss, but we don't need their permission.

Let there be an end to the arrogance of the big powers who miss no opportunity to put the rights of the people in question. Africa's absence from the club of those who have the right to veto is unjust and should be ended.

The interests of the United States are better served by demanding reform and seeing that reform takes place than by removing our influence from the UN.

We shouldn't discuss the world of tomorrow in terms of becoming a balance to the United States. The real issue is whether the United States will define herself as part of the U.N. system-or not.

Probably the most useful thing I can do as secretary of state is to assist the president in adapting and renewing the transnational institutions that were created after World War II.

There is no such thing as the United Nations.

We saw there was no consensus in the U.N. Security Council. It was impossible, due to the threatened veto by some.

Attempts to settle crises by unilateral sanctions outside the framework of U.N. Security Council decisions threaten international peace and stability. Such attempts are counterproductive and contradict the norms and principles of international law.

Globalisation must have, as a critical component, international dispensation in the locality of U.N. institutions. It cannot be, and must not be, business as usual in the establishment and location of international institutions, especially of the United Nations.

I think the American people, understandably, have sort of lost faith in the United Nations.