The west shouldn’t beg for its reputation

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Reconcile, if you can, the following statements.

First, universal laws are just another form of western empire. While the US and its allies lecture developing countries about such rich-world frills as human rights, China and Russia respect national traditions. These so-called autocracies offer material help — trade, investment, arms — without moral or legal strings attached. “Freedom of speech won’t feed my children.”

Second, Israel is in breach of universal laws. The proper forum for this case is the International Court of Justice, whose name and picturesque Dutch setting could hardly be more suggestive of Enlightenment supremacy. When the court makes a provisional ruling that Israel must “prevent” genocide in Gaza, the world should defer to it as secular scripture.

What explains the flow of both arguments from quite often the same mouth? Cynicism, perhaps. Or confusion. Either way, critics of the west — not just South Africa itself, which brought the ICJ proceedings against Israel — tend to use whatever line of attack is convenient in the moment.

The case in The Hague should stand as a lesson to the west. With a large part of the “non-aligned” world, the west can’t win. In Washington, but more especially in European capitals, there is still a liberal inclination to blame the rich democracies for their unpopularity elsewhere: to accept at face value the criticisms of the west, and atone. The extent to which anti-westernism is just muddle-headed and vexatious gets lost in all the well-meaning guilt.

Grievances to do with the colonial age, or with cold war meddling, are one thing. But so much of the case against the US-led democracies is fresher than that, and doesn’t survive a closer look.

No, the west did not go on a triumphalist lap of honour after 1989. Far from imposing its values, it abstained from Rwanda, dithered over Bosnia…