Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Bring Back Metternich

MetternichKlemens Lothar Wenzel, Prince Von Metternich, became Foreign Minister for the Austrian Empire in 1809. For most of the next forty years he was the diplomatic genius of the European political scene, dominating Continental affairs for the first half of the 19th century the way Otto Von Bismarck dominated the second half.

Metternich’s crowning achievement was the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which redrew the map of Europe after the departure of Napoleon and created a stable system that lasted for more than thirty years, until the revolutions of 1848.

The map of Europe was much more finely divided in those days, and Metternich had to juggle an incredible complexity of states, monarchs, dukes, princes, and territorial associations. By all contemporary accounts, he handled such tasks with tact, finesse, and a calm urbanity which managed to persuade acrimonious neighbors to reach accommodation with one another. The territorial adjustments were immense — the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created, various new pieces of territory were annexed to Austria, and many other pieces of the European jigsaw were put into place.

The Congress of Vienna

It brings to mind Al Stewart’s song “League of Notions”:

I’m sitting in the wreck of Europe
With a map of Europe
And the lines and the borders are gone
We’ve got to do this jigsaw puzzle
It’s an awful muddle
But somehow we’ve got to go on

The difference between 1815 and 1919 was due to ideology (or the lack thereof). Metternich’s unabashed goal was to balance the interests of various European powers while advancing those of Austria. But in 1919 at Versailles the Allies were purportedly acting out of the highest altruistic motives: national self-determination and democracy were the order of the day, and war would be abolished forever by the League of Nations.

We all know how that turned out.

I bring up Prince Von Metternich because of a discussion in the comments on Dymphna’s post about the UN. Everyone involved agreed that the UN is corrupt sinkhole and an abject failure. But Henrik Ræder Clausen also had this to say:

We need a new [alternative to the UN], strictly dedicated to democracy, civil liberties and the upholding of division of state and religion.

And islam o’phobe responded with this:
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It would only go the same way as the League of Nations and the United Nations. Competitionless, bureaucratic entities of this kind naturally degrade into corruption.

John McCain’s proposed “League of Democracies” or some other alternative would be no different. I think it would be best to do away the United Nations and replace it with nothing.

As appealing as Henrik’s idea is, I have to agree with Mr. O’Phobe.

After all, the UN was “dedicated to democracy, civil liberties and the upholding of division of state and religion”. It still is, if you believe the text of its charter. The same was true of the League of Notions.

Why would a new organization — “The International Alliance of Democracies”, or whatever we choose to call it — be any different?

Why do we imagine that we could succeed where our forebears failed so abysmally?

An uncomfortable truth is at work here: enormous high-minded transnational institutions don’t work, because they can’t work. They are created in an attempt to wish away human nature.

And human nature is a stubborn thing.

Human beings in large groups do not act according to idealistic concerns. Their actions are governed by the brokering of interests among the collective participants. This happens regardless of the altruistic ideals that ostensibly guide the actions of the principal players.

Any institution that pretends otherwise — that asserts that it functions solely out of high-minded purposes — will inevitably devolve to a combination of corruption and totalitarianism, since it will not overtly be able to broker the interests of the powerful groups involved.

The underlying dynamics remain unchanged, but the process of their resolution must of necessity remain secret. Powerful groups will still run international affairs, but they will have to conceal what they do in order to make the pretense of disinterested altruism.

It is a recipe for disaster, as has been amply demonstrated.

We have avoided a cataclysmic war since 1945, and many people attribute this success to the United Nations. But how do we know that’s true? We have no control group to compare it with. The UN has in fact encouraged continuous low-level conflicts among secondary and tertiary powers by insisting on blockading the natural course whereby states act to preserve their interests.

Its actions concerning the Middle East may well usher in a cataclysm to make World War Two pale in comparison. Yet a balance-of-power approach might have long since resolved the crisis, and with much less bloodshed than we will eventually face.

The actions of the League of Nations guaranteed that the Great War would be resumed, and helped make it even worse than it would have been otherwise.

The United Nations has delayed the reckoning of thousands of conflicts, great and small. However, the horrendous financial collapse that we are about to enter will allow these conflicts to sort themselves out at last, and if we are lucky only a few million people will die as a result.

The Metternich-style balance of power system was a much better idea.

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Unfortunately for the denizens of the 21st century, the modus operandi of Metternich (or Bismarck) is no longer feasible. For good or ill, we are stuck with high-mindedness as the publicly avowed motivating principle for international action, at least until the coming collapse forces a new order on us.

Part of the problem lies with the United States, which is unable to manage international affairs from a “competing interests” standpoint, because the propositional nature of our system commands us to view the world through our own rose-tinted idealistic glasses.

But that can’t be the entire explanation, because the architects of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations included the major Western European nations, and the United States never even signed on for the League. The botch job from 1919 to 1939 was mainly due to the European powers, and the “end of war” was a popular European notion.

Western Europe was every bit as susceptible as the USA to the siren song of international idealism.

So what was different in Metternich’s time? Why could he do what became impossible a century later?

For much of the 20th century, historians wrote Metternich off as cynical and opportunistic — as indeed he was.

But that wasn’t the entirety of his character. He represented the interests of his country and his Emperor, and he believed, quite rightly, that a stable configuration of European powers — which managed the interests of all according to the best possible compromise — was in the interests of Austria.

Bismarck made similar calculations for the German Empire. Both leaders represented their emperors in such a way as to advance their nations’ interests, and in doing so they furthered the cause of peace.

Funny about that.

The two giants of 19th century Europe sat atop a system of hereditary monarchies which allowed enough representative government to maintain public support. Regardless of any cynicism and opportunistic behavior, it was generally accepted that God ordered the world so that kings and princes ruled, subjects obeyed, and nations prospered. Deviation from this natural order was dangerous — as the all-too-recent examples of Robespierre and Napoleon amply attested.

But their world is now gone. God is dead, as far as international statecraft is concerned. The ambitions of politicians are now unchecked by anything higher than themselves.

They maintain the pretence of international law. They support every high-minded ideal. Yet corruption flourishes, oppression rages unchecked, and violence is only countered when it serves the secret interests of the great powers.

The millions of corpses piled up in Rwanda, Darfur, and Cambodia are a mute testament to the effectiveness of the international world order.

“By their fruits ye shall know them.”

By its fruits, the United Nations is a dreadful bane upon the peoples of the world.

We would be better off without it, and we need no replacement.

13 comments:

christian soldier said...

The U.S. is a Constitutional REPUBLIC for a reason!!
The UN is corrupt because - well- ---power is assigned to a few with the U.S. tax-payer paying 22% of its budget!
ENOUGH!!!
DEMOCRACIES DO NOT WORK! ANYWHERE!
Thank you for your continued stands for freedom and for your excellent posts.
C-CS

Czechmade said...

Already "United Nations" is a blatant nonsense. Where are the "Nations"? United "crooks in charge of neutred nations" or Umma as one united nation work hard to replace UN.

Powerful United nations you might create as a mere website, if you manage to avoid people with vested interests.

Democracy works, but citizens need to be informed and put some energy in it themselves on regular basis.

fnord said...

Excellent post, thank you. It's true, whether one like it or not: idealistic internationalism doesn't work. Never. It is human nature to think and act in pale. And it is o.k., since we halfway learned to get along. The now celebrated and forced internationalism will bring us back to times, which we all hoped to have passed. Worse: the reckless mixing up of cultures who don't fit together on a large scale will introduce an age of new provincialism, as bloody and as stupid as in times were we thought we had overcome. Sometimes it's to tear one's hair.

Best wishes,

fnord

Snouck said...

Baron:
"The territorial adjustments were immense — the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created, ..."

Snouck:
Thanks for bringing this homage to the great Prince Metternich, who was instrumental in giving Europe a long time of tranquility.

It is correct that at the Congress of Vienna the existence of Kingdom of the Netherlands was confirmed.

It must be emphasized that the Dutch Nation had already known a independent existance from the time of the Dutch revolt, which started in 1568. In 1648 independence of the Northern Netherlands was confirmed as a republic by the major European countries. The Westphalian peace settled both the 30 years war and the 80 years war (Dutch Revolt).

An important reason that the Republic was changed into a Monarchy in 1814 was the fact that the European monarchical powers had united against revolutionary France. So the Dutch felt the need adapt to the new political realities. The old Dutch republic had never purged itself of its nobility in the way of the Terror of the French Revolution, so the societal building blocks of Metternich's Europe had been prudently retained.

Regards,

Snouck

MauserMedic said...

Cataclysmic war has been avoided because the cost; large swathes of territory utterly destroyed for long periods of time by nuclear weapons, has rendered it economically unrewarding. Although this standard goes out the window when you're more interested in killing enemy populations rather than gaining or protecting territory.

Regarding pursuing individual interests leading to peace: in an age where it's realized that wealth isn't a finite sum, negotiation and trade lead to greater gains than invasions. Much like consumers buying what they wish in a competitive market leads to greater choice and productivity than a centrally planned economy, nations pursuing their own individual interests would gain greater benefits than pursuing the UN's "global government" model.

Unfortunately, most of the world still consists of modern versions of rule by divine right, or juntas with high sounding names. It is they who will continue to pursue the global governance model, as they will control who attends the UN in their name, and will disregard any decisions that don't suit them, as they control their militaries (until the next strong man comes along).

I submit that the UN's focus and quality of "work" could be considerably improved by situating it in Greenland, as they will be considerably less distracted by the vices of New York.

gxm said...

MauserMedic has it right concerning world war. You can thank Oppenheimer, Fermi, Lawrence, Von Neumann, Feynman, Gamow, Teller, et al that wars have so far been low level and not worldwide.

Snouck said...

MauserMedic:
"I submit that the UN's focus and quality of "work" could be considerably improved by situating it in Greenland, as they will be considerably less distracted by the vices of New York.

Snouck:
I'd rather see the U.N. moved to Las Vegas, if they are really so strongly affected by vice.

. said...

Unfortunately for your thesis Baron, we may not know that the UN has kept us out of war but we do indeed know that the absence of any multinational body will definitely NOT keep us out of war - see, e.g. World War I and its spawn, World War II.

I also find it ironic that you praise Metternich. He espoused the interests of a state that was the antithesis of the European nationalism that you so heartily endorse. In fact, the Austro-Hungarian empire can be seen as an authoritarian version of the EU as applied to Southeast Europe, including Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Romanians, Slovenes, Croatians, Bosnians, Serbians, and Italians. It's demise, as it was becoming less authoritarian and more democratic was perhaps that saddest of the many sad events that vomited out of the maw of World War I.

Czechmade said...

Thanks ex-Gordon. I was too tired to go back to judge Metternich. But for us he was a disaster. To be just one has to go through all the details...so I did not.

Who likes "absolutism" or Metternichs secret police?

A little detail - Henry Kissinger was a great fan of Metternich. A clear warning.

Unknown said...

In general I support Israel, but one of the major arguments for its legitemacy is a League of Nations/United Nations decision. This decision made all Arabs and Muslims very angry. So on this ocasion, when the decision made by the United Nations was in western interest or interest of the ally its a good decision, but when the other side uses the same mechanism to push their own agenda this is bad news?

So conclusion is: United Nations ilegitimate, Israel was created because rich jews lobied people in England to let them setle on the land of the Arabs, end of story, zero sum game.

Baron Bodissey said...

Russkiy --

What you say has merit, but there's much more than that.

The UN passed a resolution establishing the State of Israel, but it was the blood of the Jews that actually created it. They fought a bloody war against a much larger enemy to establish their nation. That gives them the same legitimacy as, say, the United States or Finland.

The UN can pass all the resolutions it wants -- heck, it probably passed one about Tibet -- but it can't create nations. Nations have to do that themselves, through collective willpower and bloodshed.

Unknown said...

Baron,

I may be wrong, but dont you think that you can be successful at the United Nations if you know what you want? We all know what Arabs want, and that is the destruction of Israel, and therefore they use their weight to push their Agenda at the UN. Russia also sort of knows what it wants, and that is its interests and keeping others away from its internal affairs.

Now if only western countries had a strong agenda, but they dont!!!!!!! It says alot about their state.

Basicly we all agree that the western countries are not on the level of real world deplomacy and therefore need to leave the playing field.

Baron Bodissey said...

Russkiy --

It might be possible to be successful at the UN if the Western democracies voted as a bloc, like the OIC does. But that will never happen; it's a fantasy.

What do you mean when you say that Western countries "need to leave the playing field"? Withdraw from the UN?

If so, I'm in complete agreement.