In the House of Lord’s debate: UK’s position on foreign affairs, Lord Alton called on the Foreign Secretary to frame a stronger international response to the axis of dictators to build effective alliances and partnerships, to challenge isolationism and indifference to the contemporary dangers.
5th March 2024
House of Lords
I will mention the new axis of authoritarian dictatorships and their proxies; the danger posed by isolationism; accountability and the rule of law. For the purpose of transparency I should note that I am sanctioned by the China and Iran.
On this day in 1946, in Missouri Winston Churchill gave his famous Sinews of Peace/iron curtain speech in which he talked about a “a solemn moment for American Democracy” warning that Hitler’s Nazism would inevitably reappear in “the designs of wicked men or the aggressive urge of mighty States.”
And here they are – an alliance of dictators and authoritarians: Xi’s Communist China, Putin’s Kremlin, Iran’s apocalyptic Mullahs and their many imitators – from North Korea to Belarus, to terrorist proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, combining a toxic mix of ideologies and criminality.
China commits ethnic genocide in Xinjiang with impunity, destroys democracy in Hong Kong, threatens Taiwan which would devastate the world economy. It persecutes, imprisons and oppresses.
Foolishly, we have allowed the CCP to penetrate our markets using slave made goods.
Foolishly we have allowed it to fill the void in the Global South – including Commonwealth countries – with their $1 trillion Belt and Road programme leaving indebted developing nations hostage to China’s strategic hegemonic interests – hostile and inimical to those of the free world.
China has happily watched Putin invade a sovereign nation, degrade its munitions, threaten the use of nuclear weapons, sacrificing Russia’s place as a great power, as opponents die in prison and ICC arrest warrants are issued against its leader.
Its quartermasters are Iran and North Korea.
North Korea, which executes a young man for watching a South Korean movie; Iran where a young woman Mahsa Amini is jailed and then dies after being accused of failing to wear clothes approved by the morality police.
This is the axis of despots and dictators who say they will impose a new world order. 2024 feels dangerous, uncertain, and unpredictable.
As in 1946 it must be countered by strengthened alliances and combating isolationism – including NATO and AUKUS.
While heartening to see the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO it is depressing to hear Donald Trump’s threats and to hear isolationist talk of leaving NATO.
He should remember that isolationism did not stop the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbour; that Article 5 binds the other 31 NATO members to support America in the not inconceivable event of it being attacked.
America also needs to be fully engaged in combatting, exposing, and reforming the UN – an institution whose organisations and agencies – from the discredited UN Human Rights Council to the manipulated WHO and subverted UNWRA – are in need of new leadership.
The UN’s pathetic response to Alexi Navalny’s death – suggesting the Kremlin impartially investigate itself – defies reason and leaves it looking impotent and corrupt. In the case of the Hamas attack on Israel, it initially proved itself incapable of an unbiased outright condemnation.
And where were the blue helmets as 600,000 were killed in Tigray, as the world looked away and now thousands dead in Darfur and Sudan, with 9 million people displaced, adding to the 114 million people displaced worldwide.
To tackle root causes of displacement we will need the equivalent of the post war Marshall Aid Programme through which the US with extraordinary generosity transferred $173 billion in today’s money to the reconstruction of Western European economies.
It was also a time when we built new alliances based on the rule of law – with lawyers like Raphael Lemkin framing the Genocide Convention and others writing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was when Churchill advocated for the creation of the Council of Europe and the European Convention of Human Rights.
Their endeavours led to the Nuremburg Tribunal and later to the Rome Statute and the creation of the International Criminal Court.
In our generation how and when will we ensure a Tribunal is established to prosecute the crime of aggression in Ukraine; what will we do to preserve the evidence and ensure prosecution for the crimes committed by ISIS in Iraq; what will be done to bring to justice those responsible for genocides in Darfur, Xinjiang and Burma and crimes against humanity in Nigeria and Tigray?
In too many places, impunity has become the norm and justice is an exception. We must take urgent steps to reassert the primacy of the rule of law and demonstrate to the axis of dictators that they will be deterred and held to account.
