IV.International Society

Nine prominent philosophers, activists, journalists, and policymakers from a variety of ideological backgrounds were invited by Foreign Policy to survey the international community and provide their perspectives. Is there really such a community? If so, who is involved? Who isn't? It reflects whose values? Most importantly, how does it operate? How ought it to operate?

Some of them, Kofi A. Annan¹, for him international society is “When governments, urged by civil society, work together to realize the long-held dream of an International Criminal Court for the prosecution of genocide and the most heinous crimes against humanity, that is the international community at work for the rule of law. When an outpouring of international aid flows to victims of earthquakes and other disasters, that is the international community following its humanitarian impulse. When rich countries pledge to open more of their markets to poor-country goods and decide to reverse the decade-long decline in official development assistance, that is the international community throwing its weight behind the cause of development. When countries contribute troops to police cease-fire lines or to provide security in states that have collapsed or succumbed to civil war, that is the international community at work for collective security.²” While Noam Chomsky affirmed that “The literal sense is reasonably clear; the U.N. General Assembly, or a substantial majority of it, is a fair first approximation. But the term is regularly used in a technical sense to describe the United States joined by some allies and clients.³”

The community symbolizes the natural social ties that existed before the modern era between people; these are frequently established on a smaller scale, as exemplified by clans and tribes. While "Society is based on social relations,". The foundation of contractualism⁴ is the intersubjective understandings that people in society create (and reshape) as they engage with one another. They set the norms that dictate their obligations and rights to one another. That is, if community identity was predetermined and shared. Identity in society is socially produced and shared via human interaction and contracting⁵.

In a society, actors can have interests that converge on certain points while diverging on others, which create a complex dynamic. On the other hand, a community is characterized by interests that harmonize, thus promoting a feeling of belonging and solidarity. This highlights the importance of relationships and shared goals within a community.

In conclusion community promoting a feeling of belonging and solidarity the interests should be converge, while the international society is the parallel of the national society, where actors can have interests that converge on certain points while diverging on others, those actors set the norms that dictate their obligations and rights to one another which create a complex dynamic.

If the community expresses the feeling of belonging and solidarity between international actors, the international society rather expresses the social links that develop between them and allow the creation of standards. This is why the term community remains dependent on the identity of its user, since the feeling of belonging and solidarity changes depending on the interlocutor.

1 Kofi A. Annan is secretary-general of the United Nations and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize

2 What Is the International Community?, Foreign Policy, September/October 2002, available [online] URL:

https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/fp/fp_sepoct02_ank01.html

3 Ibid.

4 Contractualism here is used in a broad sense: norms are based on contract or agreement.To know more about “ contractualism”, see Ashford, Elizabeth and Tim Mulgan, "Contractualism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/contractualism/>.

5 محمد حمشي، عن مفهوم المجتمع الدولي وخيبته المريرة في غزة، المركز العربي للأبحاث ودراسة السياسات، تشرين الثاني/ نوفمبر، 2023،ص.3. متوفر على النت [أونلاين]: https://www.dohainstitute.org/ar/Lists/ACRPS-PDFDocumentLibrary/on-the-concept-of-the-international-community-and-its-bitter-failure-in-gaza.pdf