The most dangerous wars are not the ones forced upon nations, but the ones they begin believing they can control. As the United States edges deeper into open conflict with Iran—a conflict Washington initiated with the confidence of a country accustomed to quick, decisive victories—we are drifting toward a strategic defeat of our own making. [...]

On the night of June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers stepped out of his Oldsmobile parked in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi home, carrying t-shirts that read, “Jim Crow Must Go.” He had returned from a civil rights meeting where he’d discussed voter registration strategies. A bullet struck him moments later, fired by a white [...]

The most striking aspect of the Trump administration’s legal argument for the attack on Iran is that, in practical terms, it simply does not exist. When President Donald Trump announced that the United States was “at war,” he claimed the strikes were intended to eliminate “imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” yet offered no evidence [...]

Good faith, a form of honesty, is the lifeblood that flows through contracts, treaties and negotiations, leading to bargains, ceasefires, and the end of wars. Good faith presupposes sincerity of purpose. When parties come to the table to resolve a conflict, they assume that each side genuinely seeks a resolution. The demands may be excessive, [...]

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in Hunter v. United States, a case concerning when people can be forced to yield their rights through a plea “agreement.” It’s a case that, for at least one of the Court’s justices and a longtime critic of plea bargaining, is likely to resonate especially strongly: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, [...]

The modern international order rests on a foundational promise: states must resolve disputes peacefully, and force may be used only as a last resort and only within the bounds of law. The US helped build this system after World War II, embedding these principles in the UN Charter and in its own Constitution. Yet the [...]

Editor’s Note: This op-ed was submitted to JURIST prior to the joint US-Israeli military strikes on Iran that began on February 28, 2026. The author is based in Tehran. JURIST has confirmed that he is safe. Due to ongoing internet disruptions and security conditions on the ground, he is currently unable to file. He will [...]

A recent investigation by RFE/RL’s Schemes unit revealed that a senior Russian commander shared a meme among fellow officers that read, “It’s not a war crime if it was fun.” The sentiment is shocking, but it is not surprising—particularly given the context in which it was shared: alongside messages documenting the mutilation of prisoners, the [...]

In December 2025, I (born in 2002) logged in from Iran to speak to students gathered in “Arts Tower LT5” at the University of Sheffield. The screen flickered; their winter coats rustled in a distant auditorium I could not see. I told them something that felt obvious and astonishing at once: look how close we [...]

Paramilitary forces in Sudan unleashed “a wave of intense violence…shocking in its scale and brutality” during their final offensive to seize the city of El Fasher last October, according to the UN human rights office. That clinical phrasing barely conveys what actually happened: a city starved, surrounded, and then assaulted in a way that left [...]