What Right Does a Nation Have to Exist?

Does any nation have the right to exist?

No.

The shortcut to get to the point is to ask this question: Does Nazi Germany have the right to exist?

There are certainly other examples, but none as visceral from the past century.

Beyond that, we can become more nuanced and examine to what extent is a nation its government and to what extent do the actions of a government represent and reflect on the validity of a nation. Put simply, governments are people with power that exercise control over the rules by which the residents of a nation live and the rules by which their nation interacts with others.

No government has the right to exist.

This is widely understood and practiced extensively by the US and other global and regional powers, incessantly interfering in governments of nations with less power. Unfortunately, there are few nations with a functional moral compass that genuinely and strategically use their influence to support human rights rather than use their power and influence to obtain more power and influence.

Do nations have the right to autonomy and non-interference? No.

As functions of the self-determination of the peoples within their borders and insofar as they equitably uphold the human rights of all residents within their borders, governments and nations have the right to participate in the global network of nations unimpeded. However, when governments fail to uphold these basic elements of existence and when they actively and independently interfere in the autonomy of other nations, they forfeit their freedoms to act without interference or influence of others.

Nations have the duty to act together through international organizations such as the UN to reign in abuses of human rights or national sovereignty committed by other nations. As individuals, we have the duty to collectively join together and impact these issues through boycotts, and by pressuring private and public entities to divest and sanction nations that abuse human rights.

The end of Apartheid in South Africa was influenced by significant external pressure from individuals, organizations, and governments, which served to support the incessant actions from South Africans to make the change happen. We must do the same to end Apartheid in Israel.