As the tragic consequences of U.S. President Donald Trump’s war of choice against Iran continue to accumulate, one hears a cry of desperation: Are we witnessing the “death of international law?”

It is a reasonable question. But there is a more important one: Can we use this crisis to re-imagine an international legal regime that works for more people?

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and America’s acts of aggression against Venezuela and Iran have certainly marked a low point for the “rules-based order” — the web of conventions, treaties and other legal norms crafted to govern the conduct of states since World War II. Even more telling has been the resigned acquiescence with which longstanding champions of international law have responded. Last month, as illegal U.S.-Israeli military strikes began in Tehran, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz captured the sentiment of many, declaring: “Categorizing the events under international law will have relatively little effect. This is especially true when these classifications remain largely inconsequential.”

Such fatalism is well-founded. Today’s violations of state sovereignty stand out for their scale and frequency. Political leaders have abandoned even the pretense of respect for what Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top advisers, disdainfully calls “international niceties.” Miller’s world is one “that is governed by strength, that is governed........

© The Japan Times