Recently, the United States, without authorization from the United Nations, unilaterally sought to form the so-called "escort coalition" in the Strait of Hormuz and urged multiple countries to participate. Forming the "escort coalition" and conducting naval escort operations constitute a form of military operations other than war and require authorization from the United Nations Security Council. As a result, the fact that no country has yet publicly responded to join profoundly reflects that attempts to go it alone and deviate from the existing international order are unlikely to gain recognition from the international community.

In practice, nations could only dispatch warships to conduct naval escort operations in designated waters under the authorization of the UN Security Council, in accordance with the provisions of the UN Charter; when necessary, they could also, with the authorization of the United Nations Security Council, provide escort for merchant vessels in the territorial sea or exclusive economic zone of other countries to ensure the safety of the vessels, their crews, and cargo. The most representative example is the anti-piracy escort operations conducted by the international community in the Gulf of Aden since 2008. To address the rampant piracy activities in the waters off the coast of Somalia that threatened the safety of international shipping, the United Nations Security Council adopted four resolutions — 1816, 1838, 1846, and 1851 — in 2008, authorizing countries to conduct anti-piracy escort operations in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia to jointly safeguard the security of international shipping.

Under the authorization of the United Nations Security Council, numerous countries, including China, have sent naval forces to participate in the escort operations and have achieved substantial results. The success of the anti-piracy escort operations in the Gulf of Aden can be attributed to the authorization provided by the United Nations Security Council. This authorization enabled nations to unite under a shared consensus of international legal frameworks, including the UN Charter and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), thereby forming a cohesive force to jointly combat maritime crime and ensure the unimpeded flow of global trade routes.

The legal basis under international law for the United Nations Security Council to authorize countries to carry out naval escort operations and other military operations is set forth in Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The UN Charter establishes the principle of "prohibition on the use of force or threat of force" in the form of a treaty universally accepted by states, and imposes strict restrictions on the use of force. And Chapter VII of the UN Charter provides exceptions to the principle of "prohibition on the use of force or threat of force" and specifies the conditions under which the use of force is permitted.

This includes scenarios in which the United Nations authorizes the use of force: specifically, when international peace and security are threatened and measures provided for in Article 41 of the UN Charter would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, the UN Security Council may authorize collective measures, including demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of members of the United Nations. Thus, forming an "escort coalition" and dispatching naval vessels to conduct escort operations fall within the scope of military operations other than war; they possess a valid basis in international law only upon obtaining authorization from the Security Council. And only actions grounded in adherence to international law can earn the trust of the international community and facilitate broad international participation.

International law embodies the shared values and common understanding of the international community. It plays a catalytic role in the creation and maintenance of a civilized and rational international order, thereby fostering an orderly international environment conducive to peace and development for all nations. As the political, economic, and cultural ties among countries continue to deepen and their interactions increasingly intensify, the international community is increasingly evolving into an organic system characterized by interdependence and pluralistic coexistence.

To more precisely characterize the operational laws of this system, it is helpful to introduce the perspective of systems theory. From the perspective of systems theory, entropy represents the degree of disorder within a system and serves as a critical indicator for measuring its complexity and stability. And without external intervention and internal regulation, a system will inevitably tend toward "entropy increase", drifting into disorder and chaos. Under this "law of entropy increase", if interactions among nations occur in the absence of widely accepted international legal norms to distinguish right from wrong and correct actions accordingly, the international order will inevitably tend toward "entropy increase" and gradually descend into chaos.

In essence, international law represents the consensus formed through interactions among actors in international relations. It embodies the shared expectations of various actors and reflects the collective rationality of nations. Therefore, international law can curb the systemic chaos caused by hegemonic acts, reduce uncertainty in interactions between states, and thus drive the international order toward "entropy reduction" and increasing orderliness. To better fulfill the normative role of international law, nations must attend to the common interests of the international community while safeguarding their own national interests, and jointly accept the constraints of international law. Conversely, practices that place national interests above the common interests of the international community, or prioritize hegemonic claims over international consensus, can only push the world back into the law-of-the-jungle era, thereby undermining the promising landscape of global peace and development.

The historical experience of the international community has repeatedly demonstrated that any international action lacking legitimacy, no matter how dominant it may appear initially, is ultimately doomed to failure under the dual constraints of morality and law. This also serves as a stark warning that a so-called "order" built on hegemony and coercion can never bring genuine peace and security. And only by upholding an international order based on international law and safeguarding an international system with the United Nations at its core and the UN Charter as its foundation can we prevent hegemonism and power politics from undermining global justice, thereby injecting greater stability, certainty, and positive energy into global prosperity.

Thus, upholding and consolidating an international order based on international law is not only a shared responsibility of the international community, but also the fundamental guarantee for achieving lasting peace and sustainable development. And only by adhering to multilateralism, respecting the international rule of law, and promoting the transformation of international relations from power politics to international rule of law, can humanity truly advance toward a more just, stable, and prosperous future.

The author is an international affairs observer.

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