Should the US Impose Economic Sanctions on Russia

Living in an anarchical world has many implications. From Milner’s essay (1991), anarchy is said to imply three things. Anarchy may imply the lack of order among the countries which is not the case in the present time. It may imply a lack of government that points out that there is no central authority in the international sphere. Lastly, it may imply a lack of institutions and laws that govern the actions of each country. Fortunately, even though we live in an anarchical world, the international sphere of today’s time has some semblance of order even though it lacks a central government, institutions, and laws. Countries are somewhat able to cooperate with each other through the formation of intergovernmental organizations. These organizations are able to form treaties that apply amongst its member countries. However, what happens when these treaties are violated? How will the offending country be punished if there is no international police to ensure that everyone is playing by the rules?

If we were still living in the in the period of Ancient Greece, then each country can not rely the security of their state to anyone else. With the self-help system back then, it was truly a dog-eat-dog world in the arena of international relations. This fact is further proved by what happened in to the island of Melos. Thucydides’ Melian Dialogue was a tale of caution that shows how important it is not to assume that anyone is watching one’s back; else, there may be dire consequences. In that time, Athens was conquering different islands as a sign of the prestige of the Athenian empire. One of the said islands was Melos. In the Melian Dialogue, the Melians argued that it was an immoral act to do against another state and that the Spartans woul...

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