The World and the Law of the Jungle: When the Powerful Legislate Chaos
By: Djamel Benali
In a world supposedly governed by international law, United Nations charters, and principles of justice and fairness, a contrasting reality unfolds: a world ruled by the law of the jungle, where might makes right, and the weak matter only insofar as they serve the interests of the powerful.
Recent global events — from proxy wars to military interventions, from economic sanctions to blatant double standards in human rights — reveal a grim truth: the so-called international order remains hostage to power, not to justice.
What is often referred to as “international legitimacy” has become a convenient cloak, used to justify the unjustifiable and to push forward the agendas of global powers under the guise of legality.
From the “Security Council” to the “Council of Fear”
The United Nations Security Council, created to safeguard international peace and security, has turned into a tool in the hands of its five permanent members.
The veto power is no longer a mechanism to prevent injustice, but a shield to protect allies and impose strategic interests. Can the will of the international community be paralyzed by a single state’s objection?
Where is justice when entire populations are massacred, and no inquiry is opened because the perpetrator is a “strategic partner”?
Humanity, According to Geography
Human suffering today is weighed by geography, not gravity. When a crisis unfolds in Europe, the world reacts with urgency, borders open, resources flow. But when entire regions burn in the Global South, silence prevails
— interrupted only by lukewarm statements and recycled expressions of “deep concern.” This is the law of the jungle: when pain is distributed based on geopolitical value, not human dignity.
Media Warfare and the Hijacking of Legitimacy
Wars are no longer fought only on the ground; they’re also waged in the media sphere. Controlling the narrative has become a central tool of dominance.
Truth is manufactured in newsrooms, victims are demonized, and aggressors are polished into liberators. In such a landscape, moral frameworks collapse, and justice is replaced with disinformation.
Toward a Global Awakening of Conscience
It is not naïve to dream of a world governed by principles instead of tanks, by ethics instead of interests. It is, in fact, the only dream that can rescue humanity from the spiral of chaos and collapse.
Power without values becomes a beast. A world devoid of collective conscience only rebrands barbarism in a modern cloth.
