The significance of natural law in these uncertain and turbulent times

By Stephen Brawer, Chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden　

At the 2025 China-Europe Seminar on Human Rights held in Madrid, Spain, under the theme “Human Rights in the Era of Digital Intelligence”, I delivered a speech emphasizing the need to overcome power-based geopolitics and reaffirming the divine goodness and creative nature of humanity. To recover the dignity of mankind and establish a new basis for international relations between nations and people, it will require lifting the dialogue above the practical policy negotiations to one whereby the power of human thought in relation to the ordering principles of the universe must take center stage. This is without question a great historic challenge yet considering that the well-being of humanity’s future is at stake, it is a necessary and inescapable one.

Is the “Law of the Jungle” in real politics inevitable?

The most typical argument against defining the basis of international relations on such high ground as “natural law” including the goodness of human nature, in light of its unique creative power of thought, is its outright rejection based on the Aristotelian and Hobbesian thinking that equates human beings with the beasts. This “Law of the Jungle” mentality begins with the assumption that human beings are not good but rather are selfish and egotistical by nature. Consequently, it becomes necessary to impose the power of the strongest to maintain order and avoid chaos. Even more importantly, both Aristotle and Thomas Hobbes deny the inherent creative and unique power of thought in human beings but rather equate humans with the beasts by insisting that human knowledge is limited to empirical sense certainty.

This degraded view of humanity is at the heart of geopolitics. The balance of power doctrines espoused historically, by Metternich and Castlereagh, and by Henry Kissinger, in the modern context, argue that only through the assertion and imparting of superior power can stability in international relations be maintained. Imperial power determines what should be policy and thereby justice and morality become merely the will of the strongest to impose its will upon the weaker. In fact, according to them morality and justice have no place in policy.

This endless struggle of raw power and self interest eliminates the hope for international relations shaped by “the common aims of mankind”. “Real politick” becomes the basis for diplomacy and negotiations. Pragmatism replaces truth. In fact, any assertion of truth as the criteria for policy is met with the criticism of “fanaticism”, and “authoritarianism”. As the people of the world witnesses the on-going debate of tariffs, economic trade balances, financial policy and currency issues, it is surely useful to negotiate and maintain diplomatic relations instead of resorting to force of arms, conflicts, regime change, assassinations, and other forms of brute force to resolve differences. The problem with pragmatism is it abandons the genuine criteria of truth and justice, and even scientifically valid principles of economic policy, as unattainable, unrealistic utopian ideas, that have no place in resolving international political debate.

“The Charity of the Wise” in the natural law

What then is this criterion that cuts across all civilizations? It does not undermine diversity, but nonetheless it lifts the universal qualities which characterize all human beings and all civilizations no matter what or where their origins.

To resolve this paradox in international relations peacefully, to avoid conflict, and war requires precisely the need to understand and elevate the principle of “natural law”. Natural law is a European Renaissance concept most clearly defined by the great universal genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Leibniz’s political thinking was in direct opposition to Thomas Hobbes, and the “Law of the Jungle”. In a series of essays Leibniz elaborates a concept of justice based upon “the charity of the wise”. It is however, combined with a spiritual and philosophical concept of mankind in operating in what he calls a “Preestablished Harmony”, whereby humanity’s creative thinking works together with a harmonious ordering of the universe itself.

This is natural law. It is the alternative to “the Law of the Jungle”. Clearly, multipolarity is far superior to the unipolar world of imperialism and dominance. Yet, multipolarity with all respect for the diversity of cultures and nations, must be guided by certain eternal principles that are essential for successful world development. Natural law is the defining principle for international relations in a successful world order. Natural law is not random or arbitrary. It is written in the unfolding reality of the universe and man’s relationship with it. This unfolding of human history is highly complex but not without reason and understanding.

The similarities between Leibniz’s insights and Confucius’s thinking

This European renaissance thinking of Leibniz was very similar in nature to the Chinese thinking of the great Sage Confucius and the even older Yi Ching (Book of Changes) which characterizes human thinking in harmony with nature. Leibniz wrote a document at the very end of his life “On the Natural Theology of the Chinese”. These similar concepts in European Renaissance thinking and Chinese cultural lay the basis for bridging European and Chinese or even Asian civilization today.

His writings on China, especially “the Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese” was written at the very end of his life, yet it still is the best foundation for building a deeper more profound bridge between the thinking of Europe and China. Because of the nature of his thinking, he was able to see the similarities which could unite people rather than separate them. Leibniz’s insights into law and the nature of reality combined to provide him with the unique ability to see how different countries or civilizations with different languages could come together in the divine ordering of creation and mankind’s part within it. He called this idea “the charity of the wise”. In today’s sense, charity is meant to be love for mankind. This idea of natural law is of a much higher order than common law or the settling of personal disputes, or even distributive law whereby the common interests of people or citizens are defined by positive agreements to facilitate peaceful harmony and the common good.　

The pathway that brings understanding and friendship in international relations

The extension of this basic understanding of human nature to the greater social context of human civilizations and nations is extremely challenging. Presently, the world is divided. This is leading to a highly dangerous “cold war” situation, or even in the worst case to a new world war. On one side is the unipolar world. Europe and the USA hope to continue to dominant global policy based on liberal ideology, and free market economics. This is old world of colonialism, cultural arrogance and ethnic superiority, ultimately driven by the Hobbesian “Law of the Jungle”. It is presently failing, yet Western leaders are still desperately clinging to it, like “A Ship of Fools”. On the other side, there are emerging new alignments of the BRICS, and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization). These together with the initiatives from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and most recently the Global Governance Initiative are shaping an entirely new direction for international relations. This one is oriented towards peace and development and respect for the sovereignty of all nations. Yet the two different directions are, in essence, mutually exclusive.

It is the proper framework for understanding “natural law”. The great problem today is that European thinking has abandoned and even rejected Leibnizian thinking. Instead, they follow his lifelong opponent Thomas Hobbes and his “Law of the Jungle”. To overcome the dangers that confront the world today, it will be necessary to bring back the thinking of Leibniz. This is the pathway that can bring understanding and even friendship in political international relations. In this context, the idea of “natural law” can be given new life and the possibility of guiding the World towards “A Community for a Shared Future for Mankind”. Global Governance Initiative can work to bring fruit to this type of dialogue and understanding between cultures.

Humanity is currently challenged not only to avoid war and conflict, but more emphatically by the need to grasp this higher ordering of reality with a causality which defines the unfolding of events. It is not mere mechanical random interactions which shape the future. It will require much hard work and effort to redefine human relations and thinking in this important light. It will, however, be the pathway to true happiness and success for humanity, and the freedom to finally escape the enslavement of thinking in geopolitical and pragmatic terms forever.

Stephen Brawer’s profile:

Stephen Brawer is a board member of the Schiller Institute in Sweden and is presently the Chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden.