Friction is the difference between war on paper and war as it actually is. —Carl von Clausewitz, On War North Korea is not Venezuela. While US President Donald J. Trump characterized his recent military actions against Venezuela as “an assault like people have not seen since World War II,” that description was exaggeration prima facie. [...]
When US President Donald J. Trump proposes that Russia and Ukraine “swap territories,” he is advocating multiple violations of international law and United States law. In essence, Russian President Vladimir Putin acquired Ukrainian territories by committing grievous acts of aggression, and thus has no conceivable legal right to keep them. Ipso facto, if Trump diplomacy [...]
“History is an illustrious war against death.” Jose Ortega y Gasset, Man and Crisis (1958) Policy Contexts and Legal Obligations Even after defeating Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah on tangible fields of battle, Israel has ample reason to stay vigilant against jihadi terrorism. In essence, Israel’s recent tactical successes have been partial and transient. This is [...]
“Credo quia absurdum”—”I believe because it is absurd.”—Tertullian, early Christian theologian It’s conspicuous. Despite impressive technological advances, the United States remains a proud bastion of anti-reason. Though approval numbers trend downward, President Donald J. Trump remains widely-admired for “courage,” “caring” and “common sense.” In some quarters, Trump is seriously considered a divine rescuer, a deliverer [...]
“Fools, visionaries, sufferers from delusions, neurotics and lunatics have played great roles at all times in the history of mankind…Usually, they have wreaked havoc.” – Sigmund Freud, Thomas Woodrow Wilson: A Psychological Study US President Donald Trump’s policies are not just matters of domestic law, but also international law in that the Trump administration’s harmful [...]
“In the end, we must depend upon creatures of our own making.” Goethe, Faust It’s clear and straightforward: the United States must avoid nuclear war or all other national obligations will become moot. It follows that all available fiscal and intellectual resources should be vested in this obligation. Prima facie, during the self-inflicted chaos [...]
Facing recurrent cycles of terror-violence in a “state of nature,” Israel must defend itself in both law and strategy. Though generally unacknowledged, this dual-level defense could prove gainful not just for Israel, but also for other “civilized nations” in world politics. A patently core obligation, it is universal in scope and justice-seeking in objective. Multiple [...]
Human beings rarely participate in world politics directly, but they do get involved as individual members of separate sovereign states. Normally, the expected costs and benefits of such indirect participation remain tangible expressions of secular considerations. Though far less decipherable and recognizable, these expressions may also include implicit promises of personal immortality. There is meaningful [...]
“The safety of the people shall be the highest law.” Cicero, The Laws During the coming year, the United States, in occasional concert with Israel, must confront expanding terrorist threats. Topping pertinent concerns in Washington and Jerusalem will be a sordid assortment of jihadi groups, some spawned by the al-Assad regime collapse in Syria and [...]
“Science, by which I mean the entire body of knowledge about things, whether corporeal or spiritual, is as much a work of imagination as it is of observation… The latter is not possible without the former.” Jose Ortega y’ Gasset, Man and Crisis (1958) For now, the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria has [...]
