Choose international order over ‘law of the jungle’, urges Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that the world faces a stark choice: “Do we want to live…with a return to the law of the jungle – or do we want to live in a civilized international society?”Addressing the General Assembly he said France was committed to both the UN itself and a revival of multilateralism to “tackle common challenges together”. Don’t give in to defeatismEnumerating crises and wars, he declared, “we will not yield to defeatism.”International law does not describe reality, but rather outlines the limits of acceptable behaviour, he said, adding that the forgotten lessons of the 20th century can be seen in the current wave of “industrialised” war crimes and a new era of barbarism. “The Geneva Conventions are being dismantled”, he lamented, citing Sudan’s El Fasher and the destruction of Gaza, among other humanitarian crises. “There cannot be peace without justice,” though, and France will continue to support the International Court of Justice (ICJ), he said. “We simply cannot accept this new order of impunity which some are trying to erect.”In this vein, he expressed support for Security Council reform to boost effectiveness, which includes opening it u...