The Miracle of Holland

By Jocelyn Cordell, UNA-NCA Fellow

On a moderately temperate Friday two weeks prior to this post, the UNA-USA Graduate Fellows met together for our habitual weekly session. While an opportunity to connect as a community, these meetings are the foundation of our development as students, as fellows, and ultimately as global citizens, as cliché as that sounds! Over the course of a two-hour class, the fellows had the opportunity to discuss the assigned reading for the week, followed by an integrated simulation on Climate Change, mediated in part by UNA-NCA Fellows Program Director Laurence Peters. The following section refers to the readings in Module Five for the class as depicted in the online course, with due reference given to the source materials as provided.

A child prodigy hailing from the Dutch Republic in the 16th century, Grotius was a lawyer and leading politician whose work served as a precedent for a number of United Nations conventions, norms, and the legitimacy surrounding the “rule of law”.

In 1603, Grotius defended a legal case for a relative. Lacking any official authorization, his three ships sailing under the banner of the Dutch East India Company attacked a Portuguese ship off the coast of Singapore; the resulting stolen cargo landed on Dutch soil. In contrast to international law at the time, Grotius argued:

“individuals could not own the sea, states which derived their power from individuals could not own that stretch of water or lay claim to the cargo either and therefore the state could not file suit against a seizure of such cargo…”

While he did not win, Grotius introduced a principle leading to the contemporary notion of the “Freedom of the Seas” as enshrined in the UNCLOS:

Other important themes solidified under Grotius discussed throughout the course included: the introduction of “universally declared human values in the shape of international laws”, legal accountability and the restitution of and by states for unjust war, criminal responsibility of individual leaders for what we today consider “crimes against humanity”, a “common law among nations” based on moral values, the precursor to the modern Responsibility to Protect, and the notion of a “civil society” outside of the realm of government.

While Kant dismissed Grotius as a “sorry comforter of mankind”, and his views were far from a modern moderate ideal; his contributions were extremely important to the modern representation of the United Nations. From the Code of Military Laws to Be Observed in War written by King Gustav of Sweden to the Nuremberg trials to the introduction of “We the Peoples” in the United Nations Charter, the hand of Grotius can be traced through history to many of the norms and values we hold dear today. In short, I believe the following quote sums up the first half of our session quite nicely:

"The idea of international society which Grotius propounded was given concrete expression in the Peace of Westphalia… Grotius may be considered the intellectual father of this first general peace settlement of modern times"

The Realpolitick of Climate Change Policymaking: Parts I &II

For the second half of the course, the participants separated into their distinct pre-assigned presentation groups to participate in a lively, if unconventional simulation. Yours truly, as a part of the Conflict Resolution presentation group, had the respective honor of representing first the interests of Greenpeace with respect to the future of the Paris Agreement, and subsequently the position of China in the Security Council to debate the proposed available options.

In summary, the results of the simulation demonstrated a few key themes:

I.             It is extraordinarily difficult to rise above the lowest-common denominator, even with a threat as pervasive and essential as Climate Change, when politics overtake the discussion

II.           Climate Change has a direct impact on not only the environment, but the political, economic, and social future of society as we understand it today

III.          To overcome the political and formulate adequate solutions, it is essential that civil society at all levels, and the citizens of every country in the world, hold their respective governments accountable for the part they play in the resulting discourse

I commend the Climate Change presentation group, who was the first among us to present their findings in an articulate PowerPoint presentation. They truly opened my eyes to the severity of where we are today, and subsequently they inspired me to go out and do something about it!

On April 22nd, 2017, an interconnected global community will join together to celebrate Earth Day. I invite each and every person who took valuable time out of their day to read my post to join me in learning more about this issue. The theme this year revolves around climate literacy, and the focus of educating people about the threat climate change poses to inspire collective action.

Do you have the courage to take a step in the right direction? To learn more, please visit the Earth Day website at http://www.earthday.org/earthday/ and stay tuned for more blog posts from the UNA-USA Graduate Fellow community!