The Iran war, irrespective of the way it ends, will have a corrosive impact on the present world order in multiple ways. That order was put in place by the victors of the Second World War. A pillar of the order lay in its ideal of the sovereign equality of all states big or small. Along with this it emphasised that the territorial integrity of states was inviolable and, further, there should be no interference in their internal affairs. This conception replaced the preceding world order which recognised the validity of colonialism. European powers paid scant regard to either the sovereignty or the territorial integrity of non-European states. They also intervened in their domestic affairs. Colonialism was based on the principle that some peoples were not fit to rule themselves. From this followed the view that some races were superior to others. Hence, all human beings were not equal. This was an affront to peoples who had moved the human race from barbarism to civilization.

If one pillar of the post Second World War world order dealt with states, another dealt with human rights. The core of this view repudiated the belief in the inequality of races. Indeed, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Article 1 of the Declaration states “All human beings are born free........

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