Faculty Commentary

“Armies are equipped and trained to vanquish enemies. If turned inward, they can easily become an instrument of tyranny.” —Elizabeth Goitein, Senior Director for Liberty & National Security, Brennan Center for Justice The United States has long drawn a bright line between military power and civilian law enforcement. The Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) embodies that [...]

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December 2025 saw a whirlwind of events in the health corridors of Kenya. On December 4, Kenya signed a landmark five-year aid deal with the United States: a $2.5 billion Health Cooperation Framework. Under the Framework, the United States plans to support priority health programs in Kenya—including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, polio [...]

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Friction is the difference between war on paper and war as it actually is. —Carl von Clausewitz, On War North Korea is not Venezuela. While US President Donald J. Trump characterized his recent military actions against Venezuela as “an assault like people have not seen since World War II,” that description was exaggeration prima facie. [...]

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Iran’s protest wave is no longer defined only by street clashes. It has entered a phase in which the state governs visibility itself. Days of near-total internet shutdown have reduced national connectivity to a sliver of ordinary levels. This is not a technical failure. It is a governing tactic that makes violence harder to document, [...]

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Across the past eight decades, the international community has experienced successive “waves” of atrocity accountability—periods in which global norms either strengthened or eroded in the face of mass violence, authoritarian resurgence, and geopolitical disruption. Today, the world stands at the threshold of a fourth wave: the Age of Aggression, a moment defined by the collapse [...]

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There are moments in everyone’s life when it feels as though everything has come to an end—overwhelmed by pressure, stress, and problems. As a woman living in Afghanistan under the systematic violence of the Taliban, I have experienced this deeply. I remember the day my younger sister walked toward school with her books, only to [...]

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For months, the United States has been carrying out a campaign of escalating force against Venezuela—one that now includes dozens of lethal maritime strikes, a naval blockade of “sanctioned” oil tankers, and, most recently, a drone strike on Venezuelan soil. The administration has acknowledged hitting a dock inside Venezuela that it claims was used to [...]

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Argentina was the first country in Latin America to adopt data protection laws. In 2000, it enacted a comprehensive legislative framework that integrated protections for the right of privacy. This early institutional commitment positioned the country as a pioneer in recognizing a variety of technological trends that affected these fundamental rights. This early adoption, however, [...]

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Performative cruelty is an ancient practice, even though the phrase itself is new. Gladiatorial fights (Ancient Rome, c. 264 BCE–5th century CE) in arenas like the Colosseum were intentionally staged spectacles of violence, often involving slaves, prisoners, or volunteers fighting to the death. These public events, attended by massive crowds, promoted imperial power and Roman [...]

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The Supreme Court, in its shadow docket order in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, stayed a district court ruling that had temporarily barred federal immigration agents in the Los Angeles area from conducting roving patrol stops based upon a handful of proxy factors—including “peaking Spanish or English with an accent.” A separate concurrence by Justice Brett [...]

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