Secretary Rubio's Campaign to Dismantle the ICC: Defending American Sovereignty at Last

In a powerful and long-overdue move, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the Trump administration will launch a full-scale diplomatic campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court (ICC) “brick by brick, if necessary.”

Using every tool at America’s disposal—sanctions, travel restrictions, pressure on allies to withdraw from the court, and threats to withdraw U.S. security assistance from states that support it—Rubio made clear that the United States will no longer tolerate this rogue court, which he described as a grave threat to U.S. sovereignty...

In response to the ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, the late Senator Lindsey Graham called the ICC a “rogue and politically motivated organization” and threatened to sanction states that cooperated with the Netanyahu and Gallant warrants “into economic oblivion.”

President Clinton signed the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, in 2000 but did not submit it to the Senate for ratification due to strong bipartisan opposition...

In 2002, the Bush administration formally unsigned the ICC treaty and negotiated more than 100 bilateral agreements to protect Americans from ICC jurisdiction...

The Obama and Biden administrations repeatedly took steps to convey implicit U.S. endorsement of the ICC...

By dismantling this illegitimate court’s ability to operate against the United States and its allies, the Trump administration is restoring the fundamental principle that no foreign tribunal—and no globalist bureaucracy—has authority over the American people or those who defend them...