Does the international rule of law still exist?

IN the first two months of 2026, the US executed two military operations that, to my mind, begs the question: Does international law still mean anything?

On Jan 3, US forces stormed the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro, flying him blindfolded to New York City where he was brought up on drug-trafficking charges. On Feb 28, the US and Israel launched military strikes against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and – according to the BBC – at least 168 people, including schoolchildren and staff in a primary school.

Neither operation received United Nations Security Council authorisation. Both were condemned across the globe as violations of the UN Charter. However, the strikes against Iran were met either with widespread support or silence from the West.

The legal case is clear – and clearly ignored. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state. Head-of-state immunity is a bedrock of international law. UN Special Rappor-teurs called the Venezuela operation “a grave, manifest, and deliberate violation” of law. China condemned the Iran strikes as trampling on “the purposes and principles of the UN Charter”.

The US response? It offered legal justifications in the Trump style, rebranding abduction as law enforcement, assassination as pre-emptive self-defence.

Realists argue that international law was never a genuine constraint on the great powers – 2026 is different only in how brazenly the US is going against it. The Global South notes that double standards have always existed: the Afghanistan War (2001-2021), Iraq War (2003-2011), War on Terror (2001-2021), to name a few. Liberals say that even the Trump administration felt compelled to offer some legal arguments, evidence that norms still shape the vocabulary of power even when they fail to constrain it.

The real danger is the normalisation of “might is right”. When one powerful state openly announces it will “run” another country and take its oil, and displays a kidnapped president on social media, the symbolic damage to the legitimacy of the international order may outlast any single legal breach.

Will the West now impose sanctions against the US and Israel for their attack on Iran, like it did against Russia for its attack on Ukraine? Or are the Americans and Israelis immune from international law? What has happened to the West and its much vaunted and oft preached “rule of law” and upholding of “human rights”?

CHEW KOK LIANG

Petaling Jaya