&gt; The only true international law is the law of the jungle.<p>Probably you are thinking of the &quot;survival of the fittest&quot;, but that doesn&#x27;t mean only survival of the fittest country, it also means survival of the fittest alliance of countries. In that sense, cooperation and reciprocal help leads to increased chance of success for a country.<p>When applying to humans, &quot;the law of the jungle&quot; is just half the story. People who are in groups that cooperate well are more likely to survive, too. Humans are social animals, we cooperate to get things done. Just being the fittest one single man does not necessarily make you more successful.<p>A better model for survival is ecology, which puts a big emphasis on the complex interdependency of species and individuals.<p>Or, to make an analogy: even if a cancer cell is the most fit to reproduce in the body, it will soon lead to the demise of its own organism and, as a consequence, live shorter than a regular cooperating cell.