The Treaty of Westphalia

This document (vintage 1648?) has attracted rather a lot of attention recently. Tone reckons it's dead meat. As far as I remember what it says is that states must not interfere in the internal affairs of other states. The corollary is that if one state does interfere in the internal affairs of another then the second state has every right to interfere in the internal affairs of the first state. Clear?

If that is what the ToW says then I am in favour of it. For starters it did stop the Thirty Years War which was a pretty appalling conflict. For the most part it kept the Cold War cold - another Good Thing. And when did the Cold War get hottest? Cuban Missile Crisis. And, is a missile interfering with someone's internal affairs? Moot point. And, it's precisely because it was a moot point ie the ToW was not clear on this, that the Cuban Missile Crisis threatened to get nasty.

I don't think the ToW's dead yet either. In fact I would go as far as to say that the War on Terror vindicates it. Afghanistan (by allowing al-Qaeda to organise on its territory) breaks the ToW. The US invades. Bye, bye terrorists. By the same token the invasion of Iraq is a far less certain thing.

The only real debate seems to be where did the terrorists come from in the first place? Often a tricky question.

There is another debate. Who is allowed to threaten the United States? See aforementioned Cuba Missile Crisis. Almost no one.

And one question? Is swamping a country with thousands of unwanted immigrants tantamount to breaking the Treaty of Westphalia? Would be an interesting world if it were now wouldn't it?