International law is made of treaties. Enforcing treaties is enforcing international law. Doing so means conflict.
Of course the US had a defence treaty with Ukraine to convince them to give up their nukes. When Russia violated their borders the US did nothing…twice (2014 - Obama and 2022 Biden). So maybe they don’t have any value more than the paper they’re written on.
Nope, the treaty with Ukraine (purposefully) never specified consequences for anyone violating it. It only said (I’m paraphrasing here because I don’t want to look it up) that the signatories will respect Ukraine’s borders.
The US respects this treaty still and doesn’t recognize Russia’s claims to Ukrainian land. The lack of specified consequences for anyone violating it makes the treaty nearly worthless.
Signing “I will respect your border” is very much different from “I will defend your borders”.
The UK had a defence treaty with Poland though. Had this treaty not existed, the UK would’ve probably done nothing.
The UK didn’t start the conflict, it was Germany who forced them to act or lose all trust in upholding international treaties.
International law is made of treaties. Enforcing treaties is enforcing international law. Doing so means conflict.
Of course the US had a defence treaty with Ukraine to convince them to give up their nukes. When Russia violated their borders the US did nothing…twice (2014 - Obama and 2022 Biden). So maybe they don’t have any value more than the paper they’re written on.
Nope, the treaty with Ukraine (purposefully) never specified consequences for anyone violating it. It only said (I’m paraphrasing here because I don’t want to look it up) that the signatories will respect Ukraine’s borders.
The US respects this treaty still and doesn’t recognize Russia’s claims to Ukrainian land. The lack of specified consequences for anyone violating it makes the treaty nearly worthless.
Signing “I will respect your border” is very much different from “I will defend your borders”.