Crimea was a part of Ukraine when it was conquered by Russian troops. Unambiguously.
That’s beside the point, I wasn’t claiming otherwise. The point is that Taiwan is more like those other cases.
If you only enforce the rules when there is already a military conclusion, you’re not enforcing international law, you’re saying that might makes right.
I wasn’t arguing against the use of sanctions to punish countries for violating international law (or some laws, at least).
And enforcing law requires might, and sanctions are might of a different form, so this doesn’t make sense anyway.
That’s assuming norms are binary, is reductive, and makes no sense as a response. Yes, norms are degraded by violations, and yes, they are important guides to state behavior in a wide variety of cases. If you don’t think either one of those claims is true, I’d be happy to defend it.
I don’t think we fundamentally disagree there but I’m saying this stuff is very tenuous as a rationale for foreign policy—one norm violation doesn’t make a great deal of difference.
That’s beside the point, I wasn’t claiming otherwise. The point is that Taiwan is more like those other cases.
I wasn’t arguing against the use of sanctions to punish countries for violating international law (or some laws, at least).
And enforcing law requires might, and sanctions are might of a different form, so this doesn’t make sense anyway.
I don’t think we fundamentally disagree there but I’m saying this stuff is very tenuous as a rationale for foreign policy—one norm violation doesn’t make a great deal of difference.