> On 15 Nov 2017, at 17:10, Bill Woodcock <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> On Nov 15, 2017, at 1:34 PM, Mark Blackman <[email protected]> wrote: >> Would you say that the current administrations of China, the US and Russia >> observe diplomatic norms in general? > > Yes, certainly. It’s the exceptions that draw attention. Which is exactly > the purpose of the norm: to make exceptions notable. > >> Possibly some norms are better than none, but I am not so sure. > > This is interesting, because several people on the UKNOF list are expressing > similar views, and in a year of working on it, we haven’t heard this from > anyone else. Can you expand a little? You prefer the status-quo? You see a > danger in normalizing non-aggression? What’s the danger or problem that > you’re considering? > > -Bill
I am not convinced that some unenforceable document enumerating norms will change behaviours, that’s all. If I’m wrong, great. I am happy to fill out the survey, if that helps stop attacks. I think state-level legislation is likely to be more effective at restraining state actors than a list of norms, but perhaps enumerating norms will help trigger state-level legislation. - Mark
