(December 27, 2011 at 4:20 pm)Tiberius Wrote:(December 27, 2011 at 2:48 pm)paintpooper Wrote: Regardless of a treaty they signed, it is still wrong to tell a sovereign nation what they can and can't do.
Actually, as I understand it, these are the only circumstances in which nations can tell other nations what they can and cannot do. A treaty is an agreement between nations, and enforced by those nations. If you agree to do something, and then fail to do it, the other nations are bound by law to act.
That's cloud coo coo land legalistic fantasy.
There is almost no circumstance in which some nation is not both capable of, and actually is, telling other nation what they can and can not. Whenever a country one wants country two to do something, and has the wherewithal to make it unpleasant if the country two doesn't do it, country one can and most often will, tell country two to do something. Much of times when two countries are in this situation, everyone knows it and there is no need for country one to verbalized it and country two will do it unbidden.