The USA and the International Criminal Court

Abstract

After the Nuremberg trials, the Truman Administration wanted to include an ICC to the Genocide Convention. By the end of the Cold War, the establishment of an ICC became topical. Unlike the G.H.W. Bush Administration, Clinton supported the idea. The aim of the Administration was to secure control over the Court through the UNSC. This was opposed by the European states, who pleaded for an independent ICC. The result of the Rome conference was a defeat for the USA, and the G.W. Bush Administration started an unprecedented campaign against the ICC. At the UNSC, it sabotaged peacekeeping missions, in bilateral relations, it blackmailed states to sign immunity agreements, and at the domestic level, the Congress enacted legislation prohibiting all cooperation with the Court. By 2005, the Administration had to recognize the ICC as the only way to deal with the violence in Darfur and Obama conclusively ended hostilities toward the ICC.