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The terms "rogue state" and a while ago "axis of evil" were used to categorize countries with some kind of supposedly evil policies. There's no consensus on whether these categorizations make sense, for they appear to be biased to say the least. The "axis of evil" looked more like an enemies list, for example.
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| I'm not a fan of the term "rogue state", regardless whether it fits my opinion or not |
I created a different categorization, akin to the hurricane scale with I being mild trouble and V being catastrophic (at least in the region). Every entry will have the reasons mentioned. I will only consider troubles caused during the past 25 years, which just barely excludes the Kosovo Air War from consideration. An extension to including this conflict would upgrade Germany to category I, for example.
This list is the work of one man with limited resources and bound to be incomplete.
Category 0 complicit actors / dishonourable mentions:
Germany is supplying arms to and effectively subsidising Israel. It provides bases (mostly Ramstein) for U.S. aggressions (esp. Iraq 2003) and subsidises the U.S. by funding said bases and construction efforts on them.
Poland marginally supported the war of aggression against Iraq and to my knowledge never showed remorse or intent to improve in this regard.
Denmark bombed Libya in excess of what the UN permitted.*
Norway bombed Libya in excess of what the UN permitted.*
Italy bombed Libya in excess of what the UN permitted.*
Saudi-Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain are providing bases for the U.S. war of aggression against Iran. Saudi-Arabia and the UAE are fuelling foreign civil wars (Sudan, Yemen). (Their direct intervention in the Yemen Civil War was likely permitted by the Yemeni national government.)
Belarus allowed the Russian federation to wage a war of aggression against Ukraine through its territory.
Category I troublemakers:
Iran feels encircled, beleaguered and seeks foreign allies, which it finds and produces itself by arming Shia (majority religion of Iran) minority groups (who are local or regional majorities) abroad. These, in turn, engage in warfare (mostly civil wars) with terrible consequences. Iran lightly attacked Saudi-Arabia and in response to U.S. aggression a U.S. military base in Qatar** in 2025 with drones/cruise missiles. It struck at Saudi-Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and UAE in retaliation for attacks by the U.S. in 2026 that supposedly happened with support of and partially originated from these countries (in case of Kuwait there's no doubt about this origin).
Pakistan harrasses India via insurgent/terrorist proxies.
Category II troublemakers:
Rwanda is destabilizing Congo because of issues going back the the Rwandan genocide in the 1990's. It even invaded Congo in 2022 and it still has troops in Congo without permission.
Turkey is illegally occupying Northern Cyprus and has done so for decades. It bombed and invaded Iraq and Syria, mostly (but in case of Syria not only) to harm Kurdish non-government groups rather than their national governments (this may have been permitted by the natioal government behind the scenes).
Morocco illegally occupies Western Sahara since its independence.
Category III troublemakers:
The UK waged an illegal war of aggression against Iraq without evidence of having learnt from it to abstain from such aggressions. It bombed Libya in excess of what the UN permitted. It attacked targets in Syria 2026 (possibly with consent by the Syrian government).
France illegally bombed Syria (2018). It bombed Libya in excess of what the UN permitted. It attacked targets in Syria 2026 (possibly with consent by the Syrian government).
North Korea harrasses South Korea with infiltrator attacks and a couple years ago a sinking of a warship. There's no peace treaty between both countries after the Korea War, but that's no excuse for North Korea considering that North Korea was the aggressor in that war. North Korea supports the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine with military goods exports and directly with a substantial military force (albeit the latter apparently so far only on recognized Russian territory).
Category IV troublemaker:
The PRC is illegally occupying Tibet and is aggressive in border conflicts with India. Its preparations to militarily enforce its territorial claim on the de facto independent Republic of China (Taiwan) via invasion is a major threat to world peace. It is supplying Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Is is violating the maritime sovereignty of the Philippines in the South China Sea and similarly disrespecting the sovereignty of Vietnam and Malaysia.
Category V troublemakers:
Russia waged wars of aggression against Georgia and Ukraine. It maintains illegal de facto occupations of parts of Moldova and Georgia. Russia violated the sovereignty of NATO countries by territorial aerial incursions, murders and sabotage in many cases.
The U.S. waged wars of aggression against Iraq and Iran. It illegally attacked Venezuela. Attacks on Syria, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen were conducted, albeit it's unclear, whether a legitimate national government consented to this. It bombed Libya in excess of what the UN permitted. The U.S. openly disrespects the sovereignty of its allies Canada and Denmark as well Cuba's.
Israel waged illegal wars of aggression against Lebanon and Iran. it is in violation of a multitude of UN resolutions. It illegally occupies territory of Palestina, Syria and Lebanon, practicing colonialism, ethnic cleansing and apartheid there. It committed genocide in Gaza and very likely is repeating it now in Lebanon. It's stealing water and destroys agriculture, which deprives neighbouring populations of their ability to feed themselves. It's stealing offshore fish from Palestina.
Noticeably, only nuclear powers are present in categories III, IV and V!
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*: Low confidence because I did not deeply research this.
**: There's good reason to believe that this was a racket, a farce, fake attack with toleration by both the government of Qatar and of the U.S..
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Iran as category I despite creating and arming their proxies (and therefore being partially responsible for their actions) smacks of significant bias. The Houthis firing missiles at any random ship that passed through the Red Sea, Hezbollah and their activities in Syria, Iraq and of course Lebanon itself would not have happened without Iranian support. Germany is a "complicit actor" for arming Israel (as if they weren't perfectly capable of violence without) and you put Iran just one layer above. And below Morocco who other than occupying Western Sahara are pretty unremarkable.
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that unbiased lists are basically pointless in todays world. The whole "rules based order" is dead. We are back to national competitions extending into armed conflict. The UN is a complete farce (and in my opinion always was), for example just this week they appointed Iran to the "Committee for Program and Coordination" which is supposed to "shape policy on women’s rights, human rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention". Whoever writes the comedy we're living through has jumped the shark.
The Security Councils permanent members and their veto made the UN pointless within just a few years of founding and it's just gotten worse ever since.
So I don't entirely see the point of a list like this anymore, I rate countries far more on whether their activities impact me and my own. Following internatinal law when it's in our own interests to break them would be folly and get us laughed at by everyone else who's pretty much left it behind (if they ever believed in it in the first place).
I think the freezing of conflicts during the cold war has spoiled us, this is who humans are. Without a neutral arbiter powerful enough to enforce the rules they only exist to hamper those dumb enough to follow them. And any Nation powerful to enforce them would in the end only ever do so according to its own interests.
This is the classic "terrorist/freedom fighter" issue. Iran doesn't set up proxies to overthrow or terrorise arbitrarily selected governments. It's arming militias of shia demographics who are under attack, oppressed or in a civil war. The trouble was made elsewhere, Iran fuels the fire.
DeleteThe Houthi blockade of the Red Sea was illegal and they could have chosen to abstain from the conflict with Israel, of course. On the other hand, what foreigners (esp. Saudi-Arabia) did to the Houthis was a lot worse (including causing famine).
Hezbollah activities in Syria were by invitation by the Syrian government. I am not aware of Hezbollah activities in Iraq. Hezbollah was founded as a defence militia against Israeli (and their "Christian" proxies') aggressions in Southern Lebanon.
International Law does define crime, it does not abolish crime - it's the same as with national law. To follow international law builds up reputation, which comes with perks. To violate international law makes it easier for others to band together for countering behaviour.
The UNSC is indeed paralyzed and not effective enough at its job (as this list shows, which kinda shows its usefulness). A reform from inside UN is impossible, so the way to go is a respected country's leader (such as Lula or Modi) should step forward and invite the countries of the world to found a World Security Council outside of the UN, without veto power and with effective, fair rules. It should diagnose international law violations and choose sanctions from a pre-written list of minimum and maximum sanctions and ways of ending sanctions. This would quickly achieve UNSC-like legitimacy with 100+ ratifications, particularly if India ratifies.