In a previous posting, I argue that the UN cannot be the sole competent authority for carrying out a just war because a competent authority must be a government and the UN is not a government. What is the grounding for such a claim?
The best explanation was provided over 70 years ago by the British writer E.H. Carr. His book The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939 argues that the fundamental cause of World War II was weight placed on international institutions -- most notably, the League of Nations and international law -- for maintaining order. They could not keep order, however, because keeping order is a function of government and those institutions did not constitute a government.
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