We probably do not need another reminder of how bad things have become in international affairs.
However, the decision by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, expected to be followed by Finland, to revoke their commitment to the 1997 Ottawa Landmines Convention comes as a shock to everyone concerned about the continued effectiveness of international law to protect the innocent.
The Ottawa Convention (full name: "Convention on the prohibition of the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines and their destruction") is rightly heralded as a major advancement in the evolution of humanitarian law to clearly distinguish between combatants and innocents.
In the numerous regional conflicts in the 1970s and 1980s anti-personnel landmines were widely used by militaries to restrict the mobility of their enemies. The victims of these small and cheap but deadly weapons were often children and civilian adults who used footpaths to go about their daily chores, such as collecting water from a river or wells.
Tens of thousands lost their lives and/or limbs as a result.
Moral outrage brought a group of "housewives" (as they called themselves) together to "reverse the gunsights", as one analyst called it.
Led by Jodie Williams, and supported vocally by Diana, Princess of Wales, the movement started with a staff of two, but eventually got the International Committee of the Red Cross and 90 UN member states to challenge militaries to defend their use of these indiscriminate weapons.
Succeeded they did and received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.
Increasing numbers of military leaders accepted the argument that as we ban the use of indiscriminate chemical and biological weapons, we should do the same with anti-personnel landmines (and cluster-bombs). At its signing in 1997, 122 states supported the Convention.
Today, just over 85% of all UN members do so. This excludes Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan, and India, amongst others.
The USA is also not a party, but in 2014 announced that it will abide by the convention, as it agrees with the moral argument behind it. It still uses anti-personnel landmines in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, claiming that other means of keeping soldiers from both sides confined are not as effective.
New Zealand is an active supporter of the Ottawa process, and contributes to mine risk education, victim assistance, survey and clearance in Southeast Asia, South America, the Middle East, and in Ukraine.
The Russian Federation poses the main challenge to this moral advancement in international affairs, and current US vacillation about Putin’s ambitions does not help.
Understandably, the Baltic states, Poland, and Finland are nervous about what Putin will be able to get away with under the tutelage of the Trump administration and they desire to arm and protect themselves.
All of this can be prevented if the US would accept that noblesse oblige: the fact that the US dollar is the currency of choice in international exchange provides a huge windfall dividend for the US as it can borrow money at low cost and use its currency as a diplomatic lever.
What the Trump administration does not seem to understand is that the lavish lifestyles of most Americans are subsidised by us, the Rest. This imposes a huge moral global responsibility on the US.
The Ottawa Convention continues to be one of the major moral advancements in recent times, on a par with the humanitarian protections provided by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols.
It also illustrates the power of civil society to change the behaviour of military and political decision makers.
While we must appreciate the security challenges faced by Nato members who border on Russia, we should also remind them that anti-personnel landmines are not only indiscriminate against own civilians, but also increasingly ineffective in an era of mobile and AI-steered warfare.
International law is often regarded as ineffective, and not even as "law" in the true sense of the word.
But it has undoubtedly led to making civilians safer from the ravages of war than ever before.
This civilisational achievement requires our care and attention, especially in times when the use of power seems to be the only game in town.
• Philip Nel is professor emeritus of politics at the University of Otago
