Remembering Daniel Patrick Moynihan
By Jason Sibert
Former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) ended his journey on this earth 16-years-ago, but his words have proven to be prophetic in so many different ways.
In his book “The Law of Nations” (1990) Moynihan (1927-2003) warned our country of the growing tendency to act not as a nation that promotes international law but as a nation that violates international law. Moynihan addressed the Ronald Reagan Administration’s actions in the Iran Contra scandal and also the administration’s mining of harbors in Nicaragua as a violation of international law. What’s most fascinating about the book is the Senator’s knowledge of history when it comes to how our country interacts with international law and the extent of our country’s involvement in international bodies to try and prevent war.
In 1890, Secretary of State James Blaine called the establishment of an arbitration system by the First Pan American Congress a “new Magna Charta.” Seven years later (1897), Secretary of State Richard Olney negotiated a five-year arbitration agreement with the United Kingdom on issues not settled by diplomacy. In 1899, Czar Nicolas II of Russia convened a peace conference at The Hague with our country in attendance. The Permanent Court of Arbitration was established at that meeting. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed another similar conference which met in 1907. Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War, the first American to receive the award.
Moynihan also wrote on the American involvement in President Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations (which the U.S. didn’t join) and our involvement in the United Nations (which the U.S. did join) in the “Law of Nations.” The Senator was worried about our country’s actions in the early 90’s and we’ve been going the wrong way ever since with the George W. Bush Administrations unilateral invasion of Iraq (2003) and the abandonment of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty by Bush (2002).
President Donald Trump has done more of the same with the abandonment of the Paris Climate Accords (2017), the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (2019) and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (2018). There are talks at this time of leaving the Open Skies Treaty, a 1992 George H.W. Bush Treaty, and letting the New Start Treaty expire.
It would be a wise thing for our country to heed to Moynihan’s warning right away. The technology for killing has become too powerful to live in a lawless world. Our country needs to value the future of its citizens and the citizens of other countries enough to work toward a future where international law makes war unlikely. Writer Conn Hallinan’s story “Nuclear Lies and Broken Promises” provides a path by suggesting that the U.S. rejoin the ABM Treaty, this would make Russian intermediate missiles unnecessary, and reduce tensions with China by withdrawing our ABM systems from Japan and South Korea. He also suggests we rejoin the INF Treaty and bring China, India and Pakistan into it. Hallinan recommends staying in New Start and also implanting article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a President Lyndon B. Johnson Treaty. The NPT commits all signing countries, including the “big five” of the U.S., Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France, to working for nuclear arms control.
Some would define these plans as too ambitious. Is ambition better than the mushroom cloud?
Jason Sibert is the Executive Director of the Peace Economy Project.
