Category: International Norms

Alsu Kurmasheva arrest: Russia has detained two US journalists this year

The Russian authorities detained Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva on October 18 for failing to register as a foreign agent. Kurmasheva holds both US and Russian citizenship, making her the second American journalist to be arrested in Russia so far this year. Kurmasheva’s detention comes following the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter

Humanitarian aid cannot be weaponized. Gazans are depending on it.

On October 13, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)—an impartial, neutral humanitarian organization key to the origin story of the Geneva Conventions—issued a rare and exceptional public statement reminding parties to the escalating Israel-Hamas conflict of their obligations under international humanitarian law. After first condemning Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on October 7, ICRC stated that “[t]he

Full transcript: The 2023 Global Citizen Awards honor leaders who build bridges in the face of unprecedented crises

Gear up to watch the exclusive broadcast of the event Flagship Event September 28, 2023 2023 Global Citizen Awards This year’s Global Citizen Awards honor world leaders, US officials, and others who embody global citizenship. Read more Event transcript Uncorrected transcript: Check against delivery JOHN F.W. ROGERS: Ladies and gentlemen, if I can just have

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dedicates his Global Citizen Award to the brave people of Ukraine and those killed by ‘Russian terrorists.’ Read his full remarks.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accepted an Atlantic Council 2023 Global Citizen Award for leading the Ukrainian people in the fight to protect his country’s sovereignty. Read his moving address to the gala dinner in New York in the transcript below. Gear up to watch the exclusive broadcast of the event Flagship Event September 28, 2023 2023 Global Citizen Awards This

Zelenskyy tells United Nations: Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine

Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 19. During his address, the Ukrainian leader spoke at length about the threats to global security posed by Russia’s full-scale invasion. Among the many war crimes Russia stands accused of, Zelenskyy highlighted the mass

Ukraine’s partners cannot remove Putin but they can stop legitimizing him

In the weeks following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, many Western leaders indicated that Russian President Vladimir Putin had passed the point of no return. Most notably, US President Joe Biden declared that Putin “cannot remain in power.” Those sentiments, however, have since been significantly diluted, with Washington, London, Berlin,

Putin’s Russia must not be allowed to normalize nuclear blackmail

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Kremlin has repeatedly employed nuclear threats to deter countries from arming Ukraine. This extreme tactic has proven highly effective against risk-averse Western leaders, who have deliberately slow-walked the flow of weapons to Ukraine for fear of provoking a nuclear response. Such caution could have

Did Russia commit a war crime in leaving the Ukraine grain deal?

On July 17, Russia announced that it had withdrawn from the Black Sea Grain Initiative (“the Initiative”), a deal brokered in 2022 by the United Nations (UN) and Turkey that allowed Ukraine to safely export grain through the Black Sea. Since then, Russian drones have destroyed grain warehouses on Ukraine’s Danube River ports and Russia

Dispatch from Kyiv: Ukraine deserves NATO membership and even more robust weapons

The air raid siren sounded at 3:00 a.m. on Thursday morning, several hours after the Atlantic Council’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his well-fortified offices, sounding the arrival of ten Russian Iskander ballistic missiles in Kyiv airspace. Each of them—more than twenty feet long and weighing in at more than four tons—served as a further reminder that