Commentaries by David M. Crane | Founding Chief Prosecutor of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone

Medical personnel are protected persons. That principle—rooted in the Geneva Conventions and universally accepted—is now being tested in Iran with the case of Mozhdeh Hashemi Bazargani, a 27-year-old Red Crescent worker whose death sentence was recently upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. Her prosecution is not only a human‑rights abuse; it is a violation of the [...]

The United States committed two acts of aggression in 2026—first against Venezuela, then against Iran—and no amount of political spin, strategic framing, or patriotic rhetoric changes that fact. If the world is willing to call Russia an aggressor state, it must be willing to say the same about the United States. In January and March [...]

The black flag—history’s stark symbol of no quarter—is rising again on the battlefields of the 21st century. It is not raised openly, as in the age of pirates or medieval siege warfare. Instead, it appears in battlefield orders, intercepted communications, and the grim aftermath of combat where surrendering soldiers and unarmed civilians are found executed. [...]

When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth began publicly referring to himself as the Secretary of War and ordered Pentagon signage to reflect the historic title, many Americans assumed the United States had officially resurrected the pre‑1947 War Department. The imagery was striking: new placards at Pentagon entrances, press releases bearing the “Department of War” masthead, and [...]

The international system stands at an inflection point. The simultaneous rise of strongman leadership in China, Russia and the United States—three states whose power shapes global order—has accelerated a worldwide retreat from liberal democracy, multilateralism and the rule of law. This trend is not isolated. It has emboldened authoritarian figures across the globe, weakened international [...]

The United States once stood as the principal architect of modern international criminal justice, from Nuremberg and Tokyo to the ad hoc tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Today, however, it finds itself in the disquieting position of actively undermining the [...]

The International Olympic Committee’s provisional reinstatement of the Russian Olympic Committee is not a procedural footnote. It is a capitulation. By clearing the way for ROC athletes to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, the IOC has once again chosen accommodation over principle — and in doing so, it has repeated one of the [...]

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (WPR) was enacted to ensure that decisions to introduce US forces into hostilities reflect the collective judgment of Congress and the President. Central to this framework is the 60‑day termination requirement, which obligates the President to obtain congressional authorization or withdraw US forces once they have been introduced into [...]

Eighty years ago, on May 3, 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East opened its proceedings in Tokyo. The world was still reckoning with the devastation of the Second World War, and the tribunal represented one of humanity’s earliest attempts to articulate a legal response to mass atrocity, aggressive war, and systematic violations [...]

At a moment when the international system is being tested by the most brazen act of interstate aggression in Europe since World War II, the US House of Representatives has an opportunity—and a responsibility—to reinforce the rule of law. H.Res. 777, now before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, deserves immediate passage. The resolution, drafted with [...]