Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York (Credit: AFP)
The rules-based international order is failing and America will continue to act alone when necessary, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, in a stark assessment of the post-Second World War system the US was key in building.
, Mr Rubio said countries had been unable to work in unison to tackle crises around the world, including a war between Thailand and Cambodia, Sudan’s civil war and the conflict with Iran.
“There’s unanimity and consensus here in this gathering, and broadly, that the international system is broken,” he said. “It’s broken because it broke itself. It needs to be brought back to its proper focus and its proper role.”
He added that it was “failing because it has grown beyond its mandate”.
The US was a primary architect of an international system that was supposed to encourage co-operation between countries to manage crises. Instead, the UN and other bodies have struggled to take meaningful action in averting or ending wars, refugee crises and other international issues.
Mr Rubio said the US would continue to operate unilaterally if need be, if it is in its own interests.