Next week, the leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. will meet in Montreal as part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a trilateral framework for cooperation between the three states. As a matter of international law classifications, the SPP is not a formal international organization nor is there a formal international agreement or charter that undergirds it....
There is nothing like an old-fashioned territorial dispute to get an international lawyer's heart pumping. The next big ICJ case will likely be brought by Peru against Chile over the little triangle of "area en controversia" on this map. Indeed, just publishing the map has led to diplomatic fireworks. Chile has recalled its ambassador to Peru for...
According to this report, Benin has officially taken possession of islands it was awarded in a 2005 ICJ judgment resolving a long standing border dispute with its neighbor Niger. Plaudits for this peaceful resolution should go to all parties in involved, including the ICJ, which cranked out a definitive judgment in a mere four years (2001-2005). Of course, it...
The Swiss have always represented an unusual blend of pro- and anti- internationalism. For instance, they only recently joined the United Nations, yet the U.N. has more offices in Switzerland than anywhere else in Europe (probably). They remain a weird outlier in continental Europe, surrounded by the EU yet, as far as I know, they haven't even applied...
I thought it might be interesting to review the foreign policy platforms of some of the less mainstream candidates for the U.S. presidency. On the far "right" and "left," we do find one piece of common ground: serious and substantial skepticism of U.S. participation in international organizations. Here is an excerpt of U.S. Congressman Ron Paul's views on international...
OK, that's not exactly what is going on. But Canadian PM Stephen Harper did recently finish a three-day tour of the Canadian Arctic where he announced the establishment and upgrade of two new Canadian military bases in the Arctic region, one which is barely 600 km from the North Pole. Separately, he announced the deployment of six new...
The American Journal of International Law has posted a continuation of its "Agora" on the legal validity of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It continues an earlier Agora which was interesting and intelligent, but predictably one-sided in its relentless criticism of the MCA (thanks to the Chron of Higher Education blog for the pointer). In its continuation, the...
In a column that only a NYT columnist could write, Nicholas Kristof gives President Bush a 10-point plan to solve the Darfur Crisis. After noting that Condi Rice talked President Bush out of his initial instinct to send in the Marines, Kristof offers mostly sensible advice, starting with U.S. pressure to come up with a negotiated peace settlement in...
Here is an interesting profile in the Los Angeles Times of Ahmad Harun, one of the top two Sudan government officials indicted by the ICC for committing war crimes in Darfur. In a possibly sick twist, Harun is currently serving as Sudan's minister for humanitarian affairs. In any event, he seems free for now. I wonder if...
"What's Canada for?" This may seem like an odd question, but one to which Michael Byers, a lawprof at the University of British Columbia and director of the Liu Center for Global Policy there, has a clear answer. Canada should exist in order to pursue a progressive, international-law abiding foreign policy. So says his new book entitled:...
Another little news item that I forgot to post about this week: A court of appeals in Paris on Wednesday released two Rwandans from custody despite acknowledging both were the subject of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Not surprisingly, the Rwandan government (already barely on speaking terms with the French government) is not...
Russia has been busily working to take possession of half of the Arctic Sea (or at least the seabeds under half of the Arctic Sea). In a dramatic mission covered heavily by Russian television, the Russian government has planted a titanium Russian flag on the seabed underneath the Arctic Sea. (I'm still looking for photos of the flag on...
