Aggression

Aggression is unlawful use of force by one sovereign state against another. Aggression may occur in various forms and may include transgressions against the sovereign airspace of a country, its water space, its diplomatic missions, its trade routes, its trading merchant, blocking of trade routes, attack on armed forces, the use of mercenaries or other bands against one country, or the citizens.

Considering that it is an inter-country issue it is governed under international law. While various countries may have their own laws against such crimes, it would be hard for them to punish another country, or if they have capacity to render such punishments, they would be shunned by international community if they were to do so.

Aggression in the Pakistani context is easily understood through the examples of cases such as Junagarh, Hyderabad, Kashmir and even the aggression shown on the Line of Control by Indian armed forces.

Furthermore, aggression can come in the form of war crimes and genocide such as Palestine, but in issues like Palestine, the world chooses to either remain silent or ignorant. However, there are circumstances where the international governance framework has come into action against aggression, or at least was able to raise its voice.

For example, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine, or when Saddam Hussein allegedly held weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the world did respond and took action in the form of sanctions and direct military intervention.

One of the problems with such a concept is that the aggression must be provable beyond doubt that it was caused by another country. In such cases, proxies, and undercover units are hard to trace and link back to country of origin. Particularly, in the current state of the world, nations rarely rely on direct confrontation, and thus aggression laws are often left unenforced. So a case like Syria, or the Rohingya Muslims would not be a case of aggression but of International Humanitarian Intervention.