96
The answer is right in the Wikipedia page you cited (emphasis added):
War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by the vanquished to the victors.
The United States has not been vanquished in a war, so it has not been in a situation where it would make a payment to a victor of a war.
Being “vanquished” implies not merely “losing” a war, ...
80
Kill versus capture
If they had captured Osama bin Laden, what would they have done with him? Barack Obama opposed the Guantanamo Bay facility, so they would have had to keep him on United States soil. Where?
If captured, he would have been tried, convicted, and executed. So not kill versus capture but kill then versus later.
His trial would have ...
62
They cannot. It's an exclusive competence of the EU. So much so that the point played a major role in the Brexit negotiations. The reason there are two phases in the Brexit deal (leave first, then negotiate a trade deal) is that the EU cannot legally negotiate a trade deal with one of its own members.
That being said, China's Belt and Road in itself is not ...
50
The agreement to pay war reparations is usually part of a peace treaty. It is usually a demand the superior party makes from the inferior party in exchange for peace.
In any wars where the United States "lost" in the past 100 years, the United States simply gave up on occupying the other parties' territory and withdrew their troops. The "winning" side was ...
48
Your question is slightly at odds with reality.
First off, with the important exception of the US government, nobody sensible is quibbling over the mounting amount of evidence that Agent Orange had short and long lasting side effects.
As you've noted already, the US government is not accepting any guilt or responsibility. So the real question is whether ...
34
In very general terms, abortion is not a "top of the mind" issue for voters in Europe. It's certainly a contentious social issue, as is everywhere, and different countries follow different approaches, but other than very specific examples it's not a frontline issue in European politics.
I might be stating the obvious here, but abortion laws are not uniform ...
31
An important factor here is the treaties a country has signed up to. In this case, a relevant one is the 1951 Refugee Convention. From UNHCR:
The 1951 Refugee Convention is the key legal document that forms the basis of our work. Ratified by 145 State parties, it defines the term ‘refugee’ and outlines the rights of the displaced, as well as the legal ...
26
Yes
The first and most obvious method is based on the UN charter, Article VI, which says in its entirety:
A Member of the United Nations which has persistently violated the
Principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the
Organization by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the
Security Council.
Obviously, if ...
26
Countries are not usually prosecuted, only the individuals responsible in the command structure.
There is an international criminal court; not only has the US not signed up to obey its judgements, it has a specific law ("Hague Invasion Act") preventing the international court's judgements being enforced against US military staff.
"international court" ...
25
Not all nukes are the same. Nuclear weapons are designed for specific purposes. There are different launch systems like ships, submarines, intercontinental missiles, ground-based mobile launch systems, large bombers, small fighter-jets and even systems which can be carried by infantry. Each of these systems needs their own nukes when you want all of them to ...
25
The key convention is the 1951 refugee convention.
The key points to this instrument is that refugees should not be returned to a country where they are under threat. Technically a person only becomes a refugee when they cross a border. "Under threat" means "having a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, ...
23
As far as I know there also isn't an international treaty formalizing what constitutes an "act of war," so it would be up to China whether or not to use the action to justify a declaration of war on the United States. With that said, I don't believe that incursion into an embassy has been used as a justification for war, at least since the Vienna Convention ...
22
George Soros's activity seems to be mostly related to promoting transparency, free elections, free speech and a free press.
George Soros has other things that he supports. For example, he supports switching from oil and coal to natural gas and renewables, which those supporting oil and coal find annoying. Soros also owns natural gas reserves and ...
22
Really the compulsion is a moral and practical one, rather than something enforced by international law: refugees tend to arrive in large numbers, turning them away is both difficult and tends to get them killed. It may be difficult to deport people to a war zone, e.g. if there are no functioning airports.
The shadow of the Holocaust hangs over 20th-century ...
20
Of your countries:
Cape Verde
Chad
Eritrea
Niger
Togo
Gambia
These are all very poor African countries. Establishing an embassy is expensive, and frankly Chilean commerce isn't so large a portion of the economy that it makes sense to do so. Now, say, China - yeah - they are investing heavily in these countries, and you want to promote trade, defense, and ...
20
Per the official SWIFT website, SWIFT voluntarily complies with all legal sanctions and regulations: SWIFT
SWIFT is an international society which is owned by every financial institution connected to the network (thousands of banks around the world). The SWIFT network essentially just provides messaging for financial institutions to make payments between ...
18
Why is this voting system used in so many countries?
Because it is simple and easy to count. Each person votes for one candidate. The candidate with the most votes wins. Contrast it with the fairer single representative alternatives. Ranked voting (IRV/Instant Runoff Voting, Condorcet-compliant methods) requires listing out all the candidates in ...
17
Basically, modern border disputes are resolved by making a treaty and hoping for the best. As can be seen in the current Israel-Palestine conflict, modern border disputes are often hard to resolve.
Historically, border disputes would often be solved by wars or coercion. Looking at Wikipedia's list of historical territory disputes, you can see that many ...
16
Originally, the main reason for the Soviet Union and the US to stockpile so many weapons was to maintain what was called “mutually assured destruction”. The idea is that you need many weapons to ensure that enough of them survive a nuclear “first strike” to launch a “second strike” and obliterate your enemy. Both opponents thus know they would not gain ...
16
There is a little difficulty working out what exactly is a political party, in a transnational context. The expectation is that a leader of a political party will become national leader, if they win an election. If the leader is from a different country it is likely to be a constitutional issue. For this reason, major parties are unlikely to be transnational....
16
In May 1999, during the NATO bombing campaign in the former Yugoslavia, the USA bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Three journalists were killed and 27 other people were injured. The US said that it intended to bomb a nearby part of the Yugoslav defence ministry but a mapping error meant that the wrong coordinates were programmed into the guided bombs.
...
16
The powers of the EU are defined by the Treaties of the European Union, the most recent of which, the Treaty of Lisbon, was signed in 2007 and came into force in 2009. An enlargement of the powers of the European Union would require a change to the treaties. As with any other treaty, it must have the approval of all concerned countries (28 as of this ...
15
First Past The Post in single winner voting areas does have a number of advantages, which many of the commonly proposed alternatives do worse on:
It provides a clear link between the electorate and their designated political representative (multimember systems often tend to be more proportional, but can make it harder for a voter to identify the right ...
15
The UN Charter does not provide for any way for a country to be removed from the UNSC. This is the case for both the permanent members (of which France and China are two, as well as the US, UK and Russia) and the non-permanent members (who serve two-year terms).
The only way that a non-permanent member can be removed mid-term, or a permanent member can be ...
14
Generally speaking, the Karman line, which is about 100km/62mi, represents the level at which "space" begins. The Karman line is the lowest point that an object can orbit the Earth. For the most part, trying to restrict orbits legally is an exercise in futility. Sooner or later you're going to pass over another country, but at the Karman line, you're moving ...
13
By Wikipedia it is compulsorial.
"The Conventions apply to a signatory nation even if the opposing nation is not a signatory, but only if the opposing nation "accepts and applies the provisions" of the Conventions.[14]"
A signer shall not be the one who breaks the conventions first. If the opposing country breaks it, the convention doesn't apply anymore
I ...
13
Ba'ath Party was the "Arab Socialst Movement" party and it was active in Egypt, Syria and Iraq.
13
IMF Conditions Are Often Bad Advice From A Political Economy Perspective
One reason is that IMF reforms are often ill advised and not beneficial, and often the proposed reforms implement policy changes that activists in donor countries desire at home, rather than addressing what is really needed locally. As Wikipedia in the previous link explains:
The ...
13
In the short term: No.
The Libra website says this:
What are the actual assets that will be backing each Libra coin? The actual assets will be a collection of low-volatility assets, including bank deposits and government securities in currencies from stable and reputable central banks. [...]
So the Libra depends on the dollar (and other reserve ...
13
There is no provision in the Sino-British Joint Declaration for an independence referendum. Indeed it explicitly states "The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will be directly under the authority of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China". There is no constitutional way for Hong Kong to become independent (except through ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
