Jeffrey D. Sachs says the grisly killing of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi officials shows that state-directed killings and kidnappings of critics and dissidents beyond national borders are on the rise – a disturbing trend that violates international law. Although Saudi Arabia is a not as big a rogue player as China and Russia, the global reaction to Khashoggi’s violent death has taken the Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman by surprise.

Since Xi Jinping came to office in 2012 and launched his crusade against corruption, a new type of fugitive – those wanted for graft – emerged. China has been accused of operating a global abduction scheme, in which Chinese agents forcibly repatriate overseas Chinese they consider dissidents and security threats to the regime in Beijing. Among them are former party officials, businessmen, dissidents, and activists. Some of them are in fact citizens of other countries.

Russia’s lethal missions against exiled opponents overseas are legendary. In August 1940, Ramon Mercader, a Stalinist agent of Spanish origin who had infiltrated Leon Trotsky's household in Mexico, fatally wounded the former Bolshevik leader by striking his head with an ice pick. In March Sergei Skripal, a former Russian mole who Putin last week denounced as a “scumbag” and “traitor” was poisoned in Salisbury. In 2006 Alexander Litvinendo was poisoned by two former KGB agents in London. Meanwhile there are reports of some dozens of unexplained, unnerving disappearances in Crimea since 2014.

Yet the author blames the US for epitomising the problem, instead of leading by example as global champion of human rights. He says “American presidents have a long history of murder” – from Trump’s idol, Andrew Jackson to his predecessor, Barak Obama. In between Harry Truman dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945; Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon carpet-bombed Vietnam; George W. Bush waged a war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, setting up Guantanamo and creating secret detention centres in third countries.

Not to overlook is the author’s aversion to the CIA, because of its long history of plotting regime change abroad and conducting clandestine activities. He points out the roles the CIA played since 1947 “as a secret army (and sometime death squad)” overseas. The agency admitted its involvement in the 1953 coup that overthrew the democratically elected government in Iran. It toppled the Chilean leader Salvador Allende in 1973 etc.

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the CIA – inspired by Ronald Reagan’s 1986 top-secret covert action directive – launched a programme of "extraordinary rendition" to handle terrorism suspects. Regan, worried about American hostages in Lebanon, authorised the CIA to kidnap suspected terrorists anywhere. His “snatch and grab” operations normalised the modern-day practice of state-directed abduction.

While Obama authorised drone attacks on terrorists, he was well aware of the threats posed to the country and his duty to protect the people the best he could. He may have signed a secret order authorising US support for rebels seeking to depose Bashar al-Assad and overthrow his regime. But like his involvement in Syria, Obama was leading “from behind”, letting regional allies take centre stage.

The author is highly critical of the power an American president wields, and compares it to that of a “non-constitutional” monarch as in Saudi Arabia. This “one-man rule” lets leaders get away with their “murderous politics” in foreign policy, due to the lack of “constitutional constraints”. He places hope on the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to secure the survival and safety of the international community. Once again the author is too idealistic to have world leaders’ ear.