Stupidity in Armed Conflict—The Twenty-First Century Russian Model
As my various teams and I work at building a case against Vladimir Putin and his political and military leadership for international crimes, in conjunction with various governments and organizations worldwide, one of the questions that keeps coming up for me is: why did Putin invade Ukraine? We all have our learned and considered theories [...]
Now facing further rounds of terror attack, Israel must prepare itself along the intersecting dimensions of law and strategy. Law, the first dimension, is universal. It applies to all combatants, everywhere. Strategy, the second dimension, is integral to the creation and maintenance of any single state’s national security policies. From the beginning, a recurrent Palestinian [...]
Since February 24, 2022, Russia’s President has demonstrated an outrageous contempt towards any norm of international law. Putin does not in the least care about the notion of Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence; instead the “Fuhrer” of the Russian Federation unprovokedly and stealthily launched missiles in the area close to Kyiv at 5 AM, marking the [...]
Members of the European Parliament Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of a legislative proposal asking the European Commission to propose a law abolishing “golden passport” schemes by 2025. The European Parliament stressed that golden passports, or “citizen by investment” schemes, allow third-country nationals to acquire citizenship rights in exchange for money and “undermine the essence [...]
The United Nations was founded in 1945 on the premise that the use of force was to be used only as a last resort. Yet, several decades later a tyrant once again is using force to resolve a “dispute”. In 1945, the world had just finished a war where Europe had been devastated. Stung by [...]
International Humanitarian Law Applies Even in Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan
The principal cause of suffering during humanitarian crises is insufficient respect of applicable rules of international humanitarian law. – Peter Maurer As the United States moves out of Afghanistan, the Taliban are taking advantage of that move and have taken control of that war-torn land. The rule of law is fading with every step the [...]
Israel versus Hamas: Proportionality, Perfidy and the Law of War
“It must not be forgotten that it is perhaps more dangerous for a nation to allow itself to be conquered intellectually than by arms.” -Guillaume Apollinaire, The New Spirit and the Poets (1917) Whenever Israel finds itself in the midst of major conflict with Hamas, each side seeks to defend itself in military and legal [...]
American Nuclear Strategy: A Complex Problem of Law and Intellect
“In the end, we still depend upon creatures of our own making.” -Goethe, Faust On core matters of national security, American analysts should think in terms of intellectual and legal criteria. Ignoring the day-to-day banalities of national and international politics, these strategists and policy-makers ought continuously to bear in mind that such primary standards may [...]
Our Conscience Must be Our Monitor: Returning to the International Rule of Law...with Humility
The United States, long a bastion of law, has a moment. That moment is its “return to the fold”, so to speak, regarding the rule of law and supporting human rights. Elihu Root, a former Secretary of State under Theodore Roosevelt, stated that at the heart of US foreign policy “our conscience must be our [...]
As the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan, in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Caucasus, slug it out over a decades-long dispute about a piece of ground, one is reminded that conflict, once again, has become dirty and lawless at many levels. Civilians have become targets, protective symbols of the Geneva Conventions, such as the [...]
