The storm clouds may be parting after Zelenskyy’s tumultuous US visit

It has been quite a week for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He arrived in New York on Sunday to address the United Nations General Assembly and meet with world leaders. But his real agenda was to meet with US President Joe Biden and presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. From Biden, he wanted permission to

The US confronts two global threats: China-Russia and itself

NEW YORK—Two dark clouds hung over the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York. The first was the growing peril of Chinese-Russian common cause. The second was uncertainty about whether US leadership will rise to the challenge after the November elections. It’s impossible to separate the two issues, as the disruptive dangers of

Member states can and should refer the situation of Syria to the ICC

On May 20, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) made waves in boldly requesting the issuance of arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defense minister as well as three Hamas leaders accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza. The decisive action confirms the ICC’s crucial role in

Putin will keep escalating his nuclear blackmail until it stops working

Vladimir Putin has this week proposed changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine that would significantly lower the threshold for the country’s use of nuclear weapons. Addressing a September 25 meeting of senior Kremlin officials, he presented a series of draft amendments aimed at expanding the scope for possible nuclear strikes. Putin emphasized that if these revisions

History is a key battleground in the Russian invasion of Ukraine

History is at the very heart of Russia’s war on Ukraine, with Russian President Vladimir Putin frequently using historical narratives to justify the invasion. Western academia can help combat the Kremlin’s weaponization of the past by paying significantly more attention to the field of Ukrainian history. Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began ten

Borrowed servants: Private military companies and sadism in Abu Ghraib

In Season 2, Episode 5 of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi is joined by international lawyer Katherine Gallagher to discuss her litigation efforts against a prominent private military company (PMC) for war crimes at Abu Ghraib. Katherine talks us through the sixteen-year legal fight on behalf of former Iraqi detainees, the various

Sudan has a famine. The gridlock on peace and security must end.

The Famine Review Committee (FRC) confirmed famine in Sudan’s Northern Darfur region due to ongoing war, setting a critical alert for the international community. It emphasizes the acuteness of the world’s largest hunger crisis, which affects more than 25.6 million people, approximately half Sudan’s population. Decades ago, even before the current conflict erupted, Sudan persistently

Do the Houthis really have a hypersonic missile?

On September 15, the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels launched a ballistic missile at Israel—the group’s longest-range attack on Israeli territory to date. The projectile, which fell in an open area near Ben Gurion International Airport, caused no casualties and only material damage. In the hours after the attack, Houthi leadership made some outlandish claims about the strike,

There can be no sustainable peace in Europe without security for Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to present his widely anticipated Victory Plan to United States President Joe Biden later this week. While the details of Zelenskyy’s plan have yet to be made public, it should already be obvious that any serious peace proposal must include a significant boost in current military support for Ukraine,