Peace in our Time! Appeasement and Tyranny - Feeding the Crocodile
We all recall the famous photo in 1938 of the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepping off his plane holding up an agreement with Adolf Hitler that averted a possible conflict with Germany. He gave away the Sudetenland and the political independence of Czechoslovakia to do so. Chamberlain proudly declared “peace in our time.” [...]
Knowing what you know now about the Holocaust, if you were given a chance to go back in time and attend the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, would you? Would you willingly support the propagandistic rebranding efforts of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime? Or would you do everything in your power not only to [...]
As we come closer to the opening of the Winter Olympiad in Beijing, China, a peoples in Western China is being destroyed “in whole or in part.” The world will assemble in the name of sport ignoring what is happening a few hundred miles away. It is a state-sponsored genocide by the very nation that [...]
Twenty years ago this week, pursuant to a UN Security Council resolution, the United Nations (UN) entered into a bi-lateral treaty with the Republic of Sierra Leone, to create the world’s first hybrid international war crimes tribunal, the Special Court for Sierra Leone. A delegation travelled to the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, to hold [...]
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” – John F. Kennedy Fukuyama’s “The End of History” paper claimed that the western liberal democracy is the final form of the human-governance evolution. His argument relied on the Democratic Peace Theory, originating from the early 1700s, which states that most democratic [...]
North Carolina has an important connection to the “state secrets” at the center of an October 6 US Supreme Court argument. In this case, Guantanamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah seeks testimony from two former CIA contractors, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, on torture he suffered at a secret CIA prison in Poland. The contractors’ evidence would [...]
International Humanitarian Law Applies Even in Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan
The principal cause of suffering during humanitarian crises is insufficient respect of applicable rules of international humanitarian law. – Peter Maurer As the United States moves out of Afghanistan, the Taliban are taking advantage of that move and have taken control of that war-torn land. The rule of law is fading with every step the [...]
Can ICC Nip Evil in the Bud? Exercising Jurisdiction over China
4,017,208 dead; 11,727,541 battling death. The above figures only begin to demonstrate the horrific reality and intolerable burden posed to the world at present due to Covid-19. The pandemic is more than just a health crisis, it is also a test of how effective international courts are when it comes to dealing with such unprecedented [...]
The Spirit of the Modern Olympics: Ignore Human Rights and Coddle Dictators, Tyrants, and Thugs
I have been taking on dictators, tyrants, and thugs for decades, holding them accountable and making them pay for the atrocities they cause. Just ask former President Charles Taylor who now sits in a maximum-security prison in the United Kingdom for aiding and abetting international crimes. My signature is on his indictment. Additionally, I have [...]
After the age of accountability in the 1990’s and early 21st century, there are certain lessons that have been learned since then. One of those lessons is that the beast of impunity must be faced down…always. International courts seeking justice for atrocity crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone were beacons of light [...]
