It seems like an odd question: does it matter how a government kills its own people? The answer is on the minds of many as reaction to the most recent use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government has died down and the Syrian Civil War has returned...

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was meant to solve the problem of impunity for those guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes. After the brutal genocides in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Burundi, the ad hoc system of international...

The story sounds familiar: the “whump” of the helicopter, the pause followed by the explosion of the barrel bomb. Another sound is also becoming painfully familiar: choking. The barrel bombs are a frequent occurrence, but it remains relatively...

International law has been on a roller coaster for the last decade. While civil wars have seen unprecedented violations of the laws of war and tens of millions of people have been forcibly displaced by conflict, the legal structure intended to eventually...

On August 15 an aircraft flying as part of the American-backed Saudi campaign against Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen launched an airstrike that struck a hospital managed by Doctors Without Borders (more commonly known by its French abbreviation MSF.)...

In signs of rising tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border, Russia has announced war games in the Black Sea in response to an alleged incursion by Ukrainian special forces into the disputed Crimean peninsula. This marks a further escalation of the already...

The South China Sea represents one of the world’s simmering conflict zones. The economic, political, and military interests of a dozen nations overlap in an area that is a significant transit zone for world commerce. In recent years a rising China...

There are no subjects for international disputes that are more contentious than the question of territory. Control of geographic space by nation-states is one of the most critical subjects in international relations. Territory is among the most common...

Starving people forced to eat dirt and leaves. Siege lines where entire populations are prevented from receiving food aid. While these are most familiar to modern readers as images from descriptions of medieval warfare or perhaps from watching Game of...

Billions of fans around the world follow soccer. It generates trillions of dollars in global revenues and is the only truly global sport. Yet it is easy to forget that to make this global sport work across hundreds of borders, coordinate hundreds of national...

Climate change is the average weather condition measured over the long-term: months, years, decades, or even longer. The phrase " climate change " most often refers to the climate change caused by humans. The climate on our pale blue dot...

According to a CNN report , "the U.S. Navy had secret orders this week to be "prepared to act" to stop a cargo ship carrying Iranian arms destined for Gaza." U.S. officials began secretly tracking a shipment of weapons as...

This week Russian officials charged 13 Greenpeace activists and one freelance videographer with piracy. Under Russian law piracy is punishable by between 10 and 15 years in prison ( click here for more ). In late September, Greenpeace activists...

In December of 2013, Mexico's foreign affairs secretary sent a letter to the Texas governor Rick Perry, requesting a reprieve for Edgar Arias Tamayo ( click here for more ). Tamayo is set for lethal injection on Wednesday, January 22, 2013. ...

Organized crime has ignored state borders for centuries. Transnational organized crime is an enormous industry. More than a trillion dollars a year are taken from innocent people. Globalization has enable organized crime to be more profitable than...

Six days ago the Russians seized an NGO's ship and arrested the crew as pirates. For centuries the state held a monopoly on a legal personality in international law. The only exception to this was the status of pirates. Pirates have long been subject...

Should oil companies be permitted to drill in the artic? Three months ago 30 Greenpeace activists were arrested while protesting at an Arctic oil platform. The activists were jailed and charged first with piracy ( a silly charge ) and then with hooliganism...

The 64-year-old Charles Taylor was once one of West Africa's most powerful figures - as President of Liberia. Today he is locked up in The Hague while appealing his 50-year prison sentence for war crimes. This week, Taylor asked his impoverished...

Iranian and US diplomats held face-to-face meetings last night discussing proposals to end decades of diplomatic deadlock. Until September 2013, a direct conversation between leaders in Washington and Tehran had not occurred since 1979. It was...

The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations consists of 79 articles that mostly lay out the details for the operation of consulates. A few of these articles specifically address a consular official's duties when a citizen of their country face...

In recent decades international law has evolved to include the punishment of a state's leaders for mass violence against their own civilians. International law, today, criminalizes crimes against humanity - or anything atrocious committed on a...

The Iranian leadership maintains that its nuclear development program is for peaceful purposes - not weapons. Last November, the Iranians reached out to Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany in an attempt to conclude a...

With very little international attention, the government of Sudan is dropping an average of five bombs a day on its own people - unarmed civilians not soldiers. This video, by the brave citizen-journalists in Nuba, attempts to shine a light on the...

The Syrian crisis is the most devastating humanitarian crisis our global village is currently facing. Reports from the United Nations indicate that both sides are using civilians as a tactic of war. Horrible human rights violations continue, including...

A resolution before the U.N. General Assembly calls for preparatory meetings for a conference to negotiate an Arms Trade Treaty later this year. Tip O'Neill - a famous Speaker of the U.S. House - once said, " All politics is local ."...