Russia appears to be accelerating efforts to replenish its battlefield strength through passportization and conscription of Ukrainian nationals in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Such efforts suggest a certain degree of desperation on Russia’s part in the face of battlefield setbacks during its illegal and ill-conceived war against Ukraine. They shine a light on the plight [...]
A critical attribute of tyranny is its multi-faced character. We are familiar with tyranny with its domestic face, and it is largely understood that this domestic face often turns outward through war and imperialism. That tyranny turns about-face back to the domestic sphere as the laws, policies and practices of external tyranny return to roost [...]
Toxic polarization is paralyzing democracy. The “war” declared by far-right aligned politicians on their political enemies is fueling hatred and violence and diminishing dialogue in democratic systems. These politicians, interested in destroying the adversary, have become “human bot machines” by immeasurably spreading fake news and misinformation, which ends up making their political practices obscure, denialist [...]
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 [...]
Hamline University in Minnesota has fired adjunct art professor Erika Lopez Prater for showing 14th-century paintings of the Prophet Muhammad in class. The University asserts that the professor’s act is Islamophobic and that bringing the artwork to the classroom with Muslim students breached the limits of academic freedom. The facts do not suggest that Professor [...]
Aiding and abetting a crime has long been a societal sanction in domestic legal systems throughout the world. Within modern international criminal law, it is also a crime and a viable charge in any indictment. By way of a recent example, one only has to look at former President Charles Taylor of Liberia who is [...]
Are the recent tech founder scandals going to change Silicon Valley or future appetite for investments in tech firms? It seems that investors are unphased by losing millions through the failures of Elizabeth Holmes or the sudden collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Investors seem to love tech visionaries whose brash rhetoric fueled the recent tech [...]
Why was the cryptocurrency exchange FTX valued at $32 billion before it filed for bankruptcy? Many of the world’s most sophisticated investors believed it was worth that much and invested billions based on that valuation. They failed to detect the company’s massive misconduct and their investments were completely wiped out over the course of a [...]
We the peoples… …reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, …establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained [...]
This commentary proposes that a high-profile political leader, such as former prime minister Imran Khan, who recently suffered an assassination attempt at a public rally, should be declared a “permanent protectee” of Pakistan’s State Security. The notion of the permanent protectee, borrowed from U.S. security laws, empowers secret security services to seize and whisk away [...]
