Last year there was Jack Goldsmith’s The Cheney Fallacy. Then, a few months later, came Eric Posner’s article in Foreign Policy. Now comes John Bellinger’s New York Times editorial (h/t to Opinio Juris). These editorials hit the nail on the head. As Bellinger writes, “the Bush administration demonstrated a greater commitment to international law in […]
In case you missed it, the New York Times had an interesting article last week about the Holder v. New Humanitarian Law Project case. The case concerns Ralph Fertig, who would like to provide support to the Kudistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to help them peacefully achieve their objectives. However, Fertig’s endeavor may be illegal, as […]
Last week I blogged about the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR); I thought this week I’d take a look at the Intelligence Community’s annual threat assessment. The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair presented the report before Congress on February 2. I found it interesting that in spite of the spotlight focused on the […]
In the comments section of yesterday’s Goldstone post, David Bernstein points our way to many critiques of the Goldstone Report he deems valid and substantive. I recommend reading them and also perusing the spirited debate in the comments section of Bernstein’s Volokh Conspiracy post from yesterday. Deem for yourself whether the critiques rise to the […]
David Bernstein of The Volokh Conspiracy examines an interview with Desmond Travers, a member of the fact-finding mission that resulted in the Goldstone report. Bernstein lists some quotes from the interview, stating: All the quotes check out, but the quotes recounted above don’t begin to illustrate Travers’s hatred of Israel, unwillingness to credit anything Israel […]
Last week there were two major events coming out of the Defense Department, the release of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and a recommendation by both the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy be repealed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve […]
People like the analogy. The rise of Germany after 1890, mismanaged by Germany and its adversaries, and the rise of China today — mismanaged or well-managed? A NYTimes article today discusses the conflicting claims over rich offshore oil resources in the South China Sea among China and its much smaller neighbors, notably Vietnam, with which China fought […]
Someone I know at NYU has co-written a paper positing an interesting theory on why some countries sign, ratify, then violate the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The theory: authoritarian leaders sign and ratify the CAT, then violate it, to show their domestic opponents how committed they are to suppressing opposition. Read about it at The […]
Christiaan Tuntono and Dong Tao of CSFB reported today on the only health care reform taking place in the G-2 at the moment, this one in China (see article below). In the workers’ paradise in East Asia, such welfare state fundamentals as health care, social security, and unemployment insurance are not provided extensively by the state. […]
So it seems the Obama administration has decided not to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), a decision that comes as no surprise. The news comes from Jurist, which reported last week about a talk given by the U.S. Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues, Stephen Rapp: Speaking at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, […]
These all come courtesy of Security Law Brief: A Canadian victim of rendition is appealing to the Supreme Court. Five American terror suspects are alleging that they were subjected to various forms of torture including electric shocks by the FBI and Pakistani police. Latvia will take one of the U.S.’s Guantanamo inmates. Marc Ambinder theorizes […]
Over the weekend several newspapers ran articles on U.S. efforts to accelerate deployment of missile defenses in the Persian Gulf region. According to the New York Times, the U.S. is providing 2 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) batteries each to Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman. The U.S. is also maintaining a constant presence […]
“Canceling military discussions and calling in the American ambassador have been two standard Chinese measures in response to previous American arms sales to Taiwan. But the announcement of restrictions on the Chinese operations of American companies involved in the arms sales represents an unusual twist…” quoted from a NYTimes article today on the US-Taiwan arms […]
The government of China has expressed indignation over the Obama administration’s decision to sell $6.4 billion in defensive weapons to Taiwan. Taiwan is part of China, Beijing argues, and the U.S. is meddling in a domestic dispute. See article on the arms deal. Obama — with no “reset” button on China — is acting in accordance […]