The Trust Dilemma

J.J. Rousseau once wrote an analogy. There were five men who were hungry. They gathered in order to find a way out of their predicament. One suggested hunting a stag. They all agree. In order to catch the stag, all five must cooperate. Along the way the five men noticed the stag. They began carrying out the plan. However, one of the men noticed a rabbit and decides to deviate from the plan. He betrayed the other four men and hunts the rabbit instead to feed himself. As a result, the stag gets away. In the eyes of the four men, he is being capricious and has betrayed them. In the eyes of the man who caught the rabbit, he was acting to survive. He wanted to catch the rabbit before anybody else had the same idea.

How then can this problem be overcome? Is there a solution? This situation has been played out again and again over the course of history. Rather than cooperating, nations and empires have fought for their own survival. The British Empire has been such an example. It chose to plunder poor nations for their sugar, cotton, coffee, and slaves. Then again, if it was not the British, it would have been the French, Germans, or Spanish. The American Empire can also be made an example. It chose to plunder poor nations for their oil. And again, if it was not the Americans, it would have been the Russians, or the Chinese.

However, the point of this is not to place blame. The British chose to plunder other nations for one reason; it could. America does the same; because it can. It is obvious then that without any rules, there are no limits to the exploitation that can be imposed by powerful nations upon those that are less powerful. There will never be any sense of justice or fairness without a third party that can mediate, create rules, regulations, and enforce them at the same time.

This third party must be over arching and have the ability to provide fair judgement when there is conflict between two nations, or when one nation is exploiting its powers. This third party must be equally represented by all nations regardless of power status and must be divided into the three organs of governance, legislative, executive, and judiciary.

The same precautions must be applied to the financial markets. Enforceable rules and regulations must be made to prevent large businesses and corporations from gaining infinite wealth due to the exploitation of employees and the elimination of market competition.

Though such measures show little trust in human nature, they are necessary. Once the international system progresses to this stage, it can then reform itself and improve itself over time. However, so long as the international system is anarchic without such a third party providing objective judgement to conflicts and disputes, there will never be justice and nations will be free to do as they please. There will always be one of the five men who will choose to hunt the rabbit instead of the stag for one simple reason alone; he can.