Breaking the Rules.

The article examines the decline of international law as a meaningful constraint on state behavior, highlighting how major powers like the United States, Russia, and China have increasingly abandoned adherence to its norms and institutions. It traces this erosion to longstanding contradictions withi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Foreign Policy no. 261; pp. 61 - 64
Main Author: Brooks, Rosa
Format: Article
Published: Foreign Policy Summer2026
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:The article examines the decline of international law as a meaningful constraint on state behavior, highlighting how major powers like the United States, Russia, and China have increasingly abandoned adherence to its norms and institutions. It traces this erosion to longstanding contradictions within international law—particularly between state sovereignty and human rights—and widespread hypocrisy by powerful states, which has undermined the system’s legitimacy. The piece argues that while international law once provided a shared framework for managing global conflicts and promoting order, its current collapse represents a structural crisis at a time when coordinated international action is critically needed. Ultimately, the article suggests that the demise of international law is a collective outcome shaped by multiple actors rather than the result of any single state’s actions.