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Why Tony was right about the Sokovia Accords - a political perspective

cockedtail:

marvelousmechanic:

If people are trying to be historical about the Sokovia Accords, I might as well add my two cents to the discussion (having studied the UN during my degree).

The Avengers are basically meant to be a crisis-response unit, right? The truth is that the UN does not really have one as of now, so there is a good likelihood that the Avengers would be governed by different rules than the rest of UN diplomacy.

Currently military intervention is only permitted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, and needs to be authorised by the Security Council (UNSC). However, the Charter pertains to UN Member STATES. The Avengers are not a state, so it is possible that they could escape the inefficiency and politics of it all.

Firstly, because they would be governed by a new ‘panel, not the UNSC. The UNSC is notorious for its inability to do things because of a) veto power, and b) the fact that it reflects the post-WW2 balance of power. The UN is massively ashamed of this, and pissed off that they can do nothing to change the situation; they are really worried about things like the Rwandan genocide happening again because of the UN’s inability to act. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that they would try to avoid the UNSC’s inefficiencies when devising the panel.  The Avengers have to respond quickly – it’s not like they’re humanitarian intervention: they go in, deal with stuff, and then leave. Otherwise they’re useless, so the UN must have designed the panel in a way that would allow the Avengers to act when necessary.

Secondly, the support of people such as T’Chaka indicates that the panel is far less politically convoluted than the UNSC. Most of UNSC’s problems arise because the US and Russia/China keep throwing shit at each other, and smaller countries (a lot of them African, like Wakanda) sit at the back and get angry at the big countries. I think that T’Chaka’s support for the Accords is an indication of their quality, and the fact that they are based on expertise, not just politics (like Steve was worried).

Thirdly, the Avengers are essentially a private organisation (largely funded by Tony). As far as I know, the UN does not have the right to just intervene with private actors as it pleases, especially if they operate inside the borders of a sovereign Member State (theoretically they are US-based).  They looove sovereignty (Article 2 of the Charter, anyone?) so I imagine that the Accords would be framed like something similar to a public-private partnership. This would have to leave the Avengers some wiggle room – they are not the Blue Helmets (i.e. effectively part of the UN from the start) so the structure of their responsibility would have to be different. (Especially given the fact that it would be very difficult to actually capture them if they misbehaved.)

I also need to clarify Tony’s comment about amending the Accords if necessary, which has been (unsuccessfully) rebuffed by #teamCap. The Accords could be amended easily, because an awful lot (if not most) of UN legislation is. Each resolution ends with something likes “we decide to remain seized on the matter”, so that the UN can react to its previous decisions if they had been the wrong ones, so don’t tell me that ‘duh, you can’t just ament UN legislation, Tony is stupid blah blah’.

I suppose that Steve is scared that another HYDRA might be hiding behind the Accords (let’s admit it – Ross is a creep, and Steve did have a good point with that), but you are forgetting something else. Tony Stark is a genius, like…a proper, certified genius. The kind of a genius that Einstein was. This means that he wouldn’t let anyone make him sign complete bullshit, even if he was grief-stricken, and even if he had little time to understand what he was signing. The likelihood is that the UN would have known it as well – the Avengers is a bunch of geniuses, spies and ex-government employees, and you can’t bullshit those people. Therefore, the UN wouldn’t have tried to pass a totally bullshit version of the Accords, because they would have known that no one would sign them then.

Therefore, stop complaining about how little time they had to read it, and how politicised the whole process was. Yes, the Sokovia Accords is a political issue, but not necessary one harmful to the Avengers and/or their work.

YES FUCKING FINALLY A POST BY SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY FUCKING KNOWS POLITICS!!!!!! bc its INCREDIBLE that some of these ppl come out here as sudden international politics experts and somehow know everything about how the UN works BUT YES GOD THIS IS ACTUALLY LEGIT THANK YOU