Classification

Post-war institutional foma

Status: Collapsing Primary Function: Moral anesthetic for a power-driven world

The Claim

After 1945, humanity outgrew raw power.

Law replaced force. Institutions replaced empires. Rules replaced conquest.

War would be managed, restrained, civilized. Justice would be global. History had learned.

This was the story.

The Structure of the Foma

The second half of the twentieth century produced an elegant illusion:

  • Courts without enforcement
  • Laws without sovereigns
  • Institutions without teeth
  • Justice without consequences

A world order in which power voluntarily constrained itself - not because it had to, but because it had matured.

The existence of international courts, conventions, experts, and solemn language created the appearance of a rule-governed system. The performance was convincing because, for a time, the most powerful actors largely got what they wanted without resistance.

When one power dominates, force looks like order.

The Role of the Priesthood

Every belief system requires interpreters.

In this case they were:

  • international law experts
  • NGOs
  • UN officials
  • legal scholars
  • editorial boards

Their role was not to enforce outcomes, but to translate power into legitimacy.

They asked:

  • Is it legal?
  • Does it violate statutes?
  • What norms were breached?

They did not ask:

  • Who can stop this?
  • What happens next?
  • What power is actually at play?

Their existence sustained the belief that someone, somewhere, was keeping score.

The Asymmetry

International law applied unevenly - but predictably.

  • Weak states were disciplined.
  • Strong states issued explanations.
  • The strongest states opted out entirely.

Courts existed - for others. Rules existed - for compliance theatre.

When the powerful acted, legality followed as justification. When the powerless acted, legality preceded as accusation.

This was not hypocrisy. It was design.

The UN Problem

Nothing of consequence could occur without unanimous consent from the most powerful actors.

Which meant:

Anything that truly mattered would never be resolved.

Consensus became proof of irrelevance.

The institution succeeded at its real task - preventing direct war between major powers - while quietly allowing everything else.

This trade-off was never explained to the public.

Why Small Nations Played Along

For small states, international law became:

  • identity
  • moral positioning
  • internal reassurance
  • reputational hygiene

Outrage replaced leverage. Speech replaced force.

Condemnation was not strategy - it was self-coherence.

The performance was for citizens, not for outcomes.

The Shock

What people are experiencing now is not the return of realpolitik.

It is the end of pretending it ever left.

Raw power was always there - masked by prosperity, delayed by deterrence, softened by bureaucracy.

When the mask dropped, the reaction was not political disagreement.

It was existential grief.

Because people did not just believe in the system. They built their lives inside it.

Why the Collapse Hurts

If power still works the way it always has, then:

  • progress was conditional
  • safety was provisional
  • morality was optional
  • institutions were theatre

That realization is unbearable to those raised on the post-war myth.

So the rituals intensify:

  • louder condemnations
  • more experts
  • more solemn language

Not to change outcomes - but to preserve meaning.

Foma Diagnosis

International law was never law. It was a story that made a violent world feel governable.

It mattered as:

  • language
  • delay
  • record
  • performance

It never mattered as restraint.

Foma Principle

Power did not evolve. It was anesthetized. And anesthesia wears off.

Agentic Takeaway

Seeing this is not cynicism. It is sobriety.

There is no referee. Only power, restraint, and the stories told about both.

Once you see the scaffolding, the ceremonies make sense - including why the experts keep speaking long after it is clear no one is listening.