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Introduction
Savitri Taylor
The world is today divided into territorial entities with defined
boundaries, each with a community of people permanently associated
with it and an institutional structure (the state) which exercises control
over both the territory and its people. From the beginning the primary
function of the state has been to protect its associated people (its
citizens) from Hobbes’ ‘war of all against all’. However, the modern
Western state bases its legitimacy on the fact that, in addition to
fulfilling this security function, it upholds the values of ‘democracy,
human rights and the rule of law’,1 and promotes the economic
prosperity of its people. Moreover, democracy, the rule of law, human
rights and high material standards of living are not just valued by the
West – they are valued by most people around the world.
Unfortunately, not all states are equally able and/or willing to play
the role expected of them. The world is increasingly filled with failed,
failing and weak states: so-called ‘states’ which have lost or are losing
credible claim to the status in fact. The non-Western world also
contains, of course, a fair number of states which, by the choice of their
leaders, do not fit the mould of the modern Western state. As Robert
Kaplan (1994: 62-3) has so succinctly put it:
We are entering a bifurcated world. Part of the globe is inhabited by
Hegel’s and Fukuyama’s Last Man, healthy, well fed and pampered by
technology. The other, larger, part is inhabited by Hobbes’s First Man,
condemned to a life that is “nasty, brutish and short”.
In the past, an individual with the misfortune to be born an inhabi-
tant of the Hobbesian part of the globe would probably have remained
where they were because they did not know of places where life was
any better or because they did not have the means of travelling to such
places. However, today’s world is a world of global communication and
global transport. It is a world in which individuals, who are experien-
cing various combinations of poverty, environmental catastrophe,
violence, and injustice, can literally see a better life beckoning over the
border and in which easy movement across borders is physically
possible. As far as states are concerned, though, an individual, who has
1
Citation: (2005) 22.2 Law in Context 1
Copyright © Savitri Taylor, published under exclusive licence by The Federation Press.
View Printable Page
Zoom to Full Screen
Introduction
Savitri Taylor
The world is today divided into territorial entities with defined
boundaries, each with a community of people permanently associated
with it and an institutional structure (the state) which exercises control
over both the territory and its people. From the beginning the primary
function of the state has been to protect its associated people (its
citizens) from Hobbes’ ‘war of all against all’. However, the modern
Western state bases its legitimacy on the fact that, in addition to
fulfilling this security function, it upholds the values of ‘democracy,
human rights and the rule of law’,1 and promotes the economic
prosperity of its people. Moreover, democracy, the rule of law, human
rights and high material standards of living are not just valued by the
West – they are valued by most people around the world.
Unfortunately, not all states are equally able and/or willing to play
the role expected of them. The world is increasingly filled with failed,
failing and weak states: so-called ‘states’ which have lost or are losing
credible claim to the status in fact. The non-Western world also
contains, of course, a fair number of states which, by the choice of their
leaders, do not fit the mould of the modern Western state. As Robert
Kaplan (1994: 62-3) has so succinctly put it:
We are entering a bifurcated world. Part of the globe is inhabited by
Hegel’s and Fukuyama’s Last Man, healthy, well fed and pampered by
technology. The other, larger, part is inhabited by Hobbes’s First Man,
condemned to a life that is “nasty, brutish and short”.
In the past, an individual with the misfortune to be born an inhabi-
tant of the Hobbesian part of the globe would probably have remained
where they were because they did not know of places where life was
any better or because they did not have the means of travelling to such
places. However, today’s world is a world of global communication and
global transport. It is a world in which individuals, who are experien-
cing various combinations of poverty, environmental catastrophe,
violence, and injustice, can literally see a better life beckoning over the
border and in which easy movement across borders is physically
possible. As far as states are concerned, though, an individual, who has
1
Citation: (2005) 22.2 Law in Context 1
Copyright © Savitri Taylor, published under exclusive licence by The Federation Press.
View Printable Page
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