Last month, the "citizens" of the so-called Republic of Texas managed to make an interesting, though minor, point even as they were holed-up in the hills of that part of the world known as east Texas, and surrounded by the armed might of another so-called republic, known as the United States of America.

"Good government is no substitute for self-government," their saying goes. But they missed the major point: the right-wing rebels can't get off the planet and neither can the agents who surrounded them. Both failed to recognize the overall legitimacy of the planetary soil on which they both stood.

Politically speaking, there is probably much to be said for the claim that the sovereign state of Texas never joined the sovereign United States of America. But that was long ago. Today, both sovereignties are obsolete. Only the human community is sovereign.

The leader of the group, Richard L. McClaren, with the title "chief ambassador," demanded diplomatic immunity as a precondition for leaving the enclave. But the very claim of exclusive sovereignty on both sides precluded a "negotiated peace."

As Emery Reves wrote in Anatomy of Peace, "The fundamental problem of peace is the problem of sovereignty." Here, in microcosm, we had the collision of two claims to sovereignty. Unless one gave up the claim, or united with the other, a fight was inevitable. The nation-state disorder likewise fails to recognize the ultimate sovereignty of humanity. The historic race between humanity asserting its claim and the inevitable armed contest between allegedly sovereign states will decide all our fates.

The Global City

We have previously suggested in this space that Hong Kong is a "world city." It was originally a small island, about 90 miles southeast of Canton, ceded to the British in 1841. Stonecutter's Island and Kowloon were annexed in 1860, and the New Territories, largely agricultural, were leased from China in 1898 for 99 years.

The original treaty proposed by Queen Victoria was immediately declared invalid by the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, then in power in China.

In the intervening years, Hong Kong prospered both in population and commerce, the three territories gradually uniting. Attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, Hong Kong remained under Japanese occupation until August 1945.

In 1984, authorities in Great Britain and the People's Republic of China agreed by treaty that Hong Kong would return to Chinese sovereignty on June 30, 1997. A unique "one country, two systems" arrangement promised that Hong Kong's civil liberties norms would remain unchanged for 50 years.

Despite threats from Beijing, the Hong Kong legislature voted in 1994 to transform itself into a much more democratic institution. In 1996 China vowed to disband the legislature after it takes control.

A mixture of global and diametrically opposing forces converging on this tiny territory is destined to make June 30, 1997, a unique date in world history.

Whatever the outcome, Hong Kong, by definition, is a world city, an integral part of the whole world community.

Global Treaties Require Global Law

Despite opposition from three major nuclear powers Ð the U.S., Britain and France Ð the United Nations General Assembly recently adopted a resolution calling for negotiations to conclude a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

Introduced by Malaysia, the resolution followed upon the advisory opinion on the legality of the threat of nuclear weapons rendered by the International Court of Justice. (See WCN, Vol IX, No. 6). Adopted with 115 votes in favor, 22 against and 32 abstentions, the measure was supported by countries including, ironically, China, India and Pakistan. China already possesses many atomic weapons, while India and Pakistan are considered potential, if not actual, nuclear powers.

Over 100 peace activists had attended a "campaign training" course for the resolution held at the Malaysian Mission in New York on U.N. Day, October 24, 1996.

The Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, based in New York, has meanwhile formed an international consortium of lawyers, scientists, disarmament experts and activists to draft a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention. It would prohibit the development, production, testing, stockpiling, transfer, threat and use of nuclear weapons.

While World Citizen News applauds such worthy initiatives, we also note that as long as "national security" remains the dogma of nation-states and as long as world law does not underlie such "abolitionist" efforts, no convention between states will be worth the paper it is written on.

This same U.N. General Assembly, in 1963, passed a resolution Ð No. 1516 (XV) Ð with both the United States and the then Soviet Union enthusiastically concurring, for total disarmament. "The present level of military expenditures," began the secretary general's introduction to that 34-year-old resolution, "not only represents a grave political danger but also imposes a heavy economic and social burden on most countries."

Since the end of WW II, some 40 million people have suffered war-related deaths by means of "conventional weapons." The cost of those weapons: $8 trillion since 1945!

(Source: Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy.)

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