Two readers challenged my earlier argument about Gaza from opposite directions. Their questions reveal a deeper problem: international law has courts, warrants and rules, but enforcement still depends heavily on states. Continue reading Gaza Exposed the West’s Moral Crisis. Now It Is Testing Whether the Rules Mean Anything
Ireland’s support for Palestine and the safety of its Jewish citizens deserve separate evidence and equal attention. A corrected look at diplomacy, surveys and reported incidents. Continue reading The Ireland Paradox: Can a Country Defend Palestine and Hear Its Jewish Citizens?
The Melian Ghost: Why Venezuela Signals the End of Global Law In 416 BC, the Athenians delivered an ultimatum to the neutral island of Melos: submit or be destroyed. When the Melians appealed to justice and the gods, the Athenians famously replied that the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. This cold calculation remains the most honest sentence ever uttered in diplomacy. Today, as we witness the aggressive reassertion of power over sovereignty, that ancient ghost has returned to haunt our modern corridors of power. The erosion of the rules-based international order is no … Continue reading Rules-Based International Order: Is the Melos Era Returning?
There is a moment in every news cycle when the story stops being about the event and becomes something else. A hint of a deeper shift. A sense that the rules we thought existed have quietly dissolved. I felt that while reading the report on the Venezuelan boat strikes, a reminder of America’s expanding war doctrine. It reminded me of how power behaves when no one is left to restrain it. The incident looks simple on the surface. A suspected drug boat near Trinidad and Tobago. An air strike. Fire on water. Two survivors clutching the wreckage. Then a second … Continue reading America’s Expanding War Doctrine and the Venezuelan Strikes
The India-Pakistan border is a tinderbox again. Missiles are flying. Accusations of war crimes are being lobbed across the Line of Control. In May 2025, India’s strikes into Pakistan, followed by Pakistan’s claim of self-defense, reignited a decades-old feud. Add … Continue reading India-Pakistan Tensions: Who’s Breaking International Law?
