What If Trump's Electoral Defeat Coincides with a Nuclear Crisis?
“The masses have followed the magicians again and again…Socrates and Plato were the first to take up the struggle against them in clear awareness of what was at stake.” – Karl Jaspers, Reason and Anti-Reason in our Time (1952) On absolutely all matters of existential survival, individual or collective, candor is indispensable. In connection with [...]
An American President's Perilous Misunderstanding of War, Strategy and Survival
“It must not be forgotten that it is perhaps more dangerous for a nation to allow itself to be conquered intellectually than by arms.” – Guillaume Apollinaire, “The New Spirit and the Poets” (1917) In his commencement address at West Point on June 13, 2020, US President Donald J. Trump presented a narrowing view of [...]
Writing in the New York Times, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton argued that President Donald Trump’s decision to kill Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was legally justified in three ways: under Article II of the Constitution, the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force aimed at those responsible for the September 11 attacks, and the 2002 Authorization [...]
Afghanistan Supreme Court extends president's tenure until next election
The Supreme Court of Afghanistan on Sunday approved the extension of President Ashraf Ghani’s tenure until the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for September 28. According to Article 61 of the Afghanistan’s Constitution, the legal tenure of the National Unity Government under Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah ends on May 22. Previously, presidential elections were [...]
Here's the international legal news we covered this week: A group of five UN Human Right's experts on Friday asked Egypt to halt all pending executions following repeated allegations of unfair trials. The experts are concerned with a...
Here's the international legal news we covered this week: The legal world is a busy place. The Philippines Office of the Ombudsman (OTO) has anti-graft and corruption charges Tuesday against former Philippines president Benigno...
The Galactic Empire: Lessons in Geopolitics from a "Galaxy Far, Far Away"
JURIST Guest Columnist Roy Lee discusses the applications of principles from the Star Wars film series to contemporary issues in international relations... In the ever-popular Star Wars series, the Jedi and the Rebel Alliance are pitted against the Sith and...
UN mission in Afghanistan reports rise in civilian casualties in 2014
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released its annual report on the "Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict" on Wednesday, which indicated a 22 percent increase in civilian causalities in 2014. The...
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formally ended its war in Afghanistan on Sunday after 13 years of conflict. The quiet ceremony in Kabul was arranged in secret due to increasing Taliban strikes in the...
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Sunday declared Ashraf Ghani the winner of the country's presidential election. The announcement came less than a day after the two candidates for the presidency, Ghani and rival Abdullah...
