My academic home -- the Centre for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen, which is part of the Department of Political Science -- has just published a new background paper I wrote for the Danish Ministry of Defence on hypersonic weapons. Here is the cover: Background papers provide a short overview -- 4,000 to 5,000 words -- of a particular...
[Anji Manivannan is the Legal Director of People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), where her work contributes to its international justice and genocide recognition efforts] In 2015, two UN documents instilled cautious hope for Tamil victims of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict, which ended on May 18, 2009. That September, the UN released a comprehensive human rights investigation on Sri...
[Mojtaba Touiserkani has a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Tehran] In early January 2026, Iran went dark. Protests that began as economically driven unrest—sparked by a collapsing rial—spread rapidly beyond Tehran and quickly widened in demands. The state answered with escalating force. On 8 January, authorities imposed a complete nationwide internet shutdown, severing the public’s ability to see,...
[Zsuzsanna Deen-Racsmány holds a Ph.D. in public international law from Leiden University. She is an independent researcher and has worked, inter alia, at Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam, and been a rapporteur for Oxford International Organizations.] In January 2026, the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court) held public hearings on the merits in Application of the Convention on...
[Dr. Joshua Joseph Niyo is Head of Unit and Senior Legal Expert – Africa at the Diakonia International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. He has served as Regional Legal Adviser for the Centre in East and Central Africa, adjunct lecturer at UCLA, UC Irvine, and Pepperdine University, and was a Swiss National Science Foundation Visiting Researcher. His work...
[Ben Gerstein (JD, BA) is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sarajevo Institute for the Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law] What is the difference between pursuing the violent ethnic homogenization of a territory and the physical destruction of the group living on that land? And further, when does ethnic cleansing reach the threshold of genocide? Examining the...
[Elliot Dolan-Evans is a lecturer in law at Monash University and RMIT. Sophie Rigney is a senior lecturer in law at RMIT University and the author of Fairness and Rights in International Criminal Procedure (EUP, 2022).] On 22 October 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its latest ruling concerning Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). This Advisory Opinion was on...
[Christine Ryan is the director of the Crimes against Humanity Project at Columbia Law School. Richard Dicker is the founding director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. Akshaya Kumar is the Crisis Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch.] On January 19, a process that has been 80 years in the making will get underway at United Nations headquarters in New York....
[Sanmay Moitra is a research assistant at ‘Human Rights in Practice’ and an Advanced LLM candidate at Leiden University. He has previously studied international law at the University of Oxford and Georgetown University.] The UN’s Human Rights chief – Volker Turk – delivered a scathing condemnation on 14th November, of the international community’s inaction on the situation in Sudan noting that...
[Davit Khachatryan is an international law expert and lecturer specializing in public international law, alternative dispute resolution, investment law, international humanitarian law, and security] A short video clip circulating online appears to show a US strike on a small vessel at sea, followed by imagery that has been read as suggesting that there were survivors in the water. The clip has...
[Mô Bleeker is a Senior Fellow at The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Geneva, and Special Advisor of the UNSG on the Responsibility to Protect .She served as Special Envoy for Dealing with the Past and Prevention of Atrocities at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.] The opinions shared in this article are solely those of...
[David Matyas (PhD – Cantab) is an assistant professor at the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law, where he teaches IHL, the law of disasters and emergencies, and tort law] On May 12, 1940, an English police officer knocks on the door of the Fell family residence in County Durham. The officer is responding to orders to intern every German...