Just a quick note of welcome to a new blog from my friends at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs. As I noted a while back, Ron Deibert and others have been putting together a great annual interdisciplinary conversation about cyberthreats, the most recent of which was Cyber Dialogue 2012. Now they're moving the conversation into blog form. The first...
More news in targeted strikes, complementing our book symposium this week: US officials claim that Abu Yahyi al-Libi, a high-level al-Qaeda militant, was killed in a CIA drone strike in northern Pakistan yesterday, despite Pakistan’s urging the US to stop the targeted killing program. A strike in Afghanistan aimed at a top-level official killed him as well as six Taliban fighters...
More today about targeted killing, to complement our book symposia: The US’ targeting of senior al-Qaeda leaders is straining relations with Pakistan, and Pakistan has condemned the most recent US drone strikes. Foreign Policy offers a look at the top Pakistani diplomat charged with renewing a good rapport with the US. The G7 will hold emergency talks about the Eurozone today. Talks...
Perhaps as a good primer to our upcoming book discussion this week, a few drone-related news items: Despite Pakistan's requests to the US to stop the program, the third drone strike in Pakistan in as many days has taken its toll on new victims; irrespective of the method of civilian or combatant counting, there are at least 27 dead. The Washington Post...
This week on Opinio Juris, Roger Alford marked Memorial Day with the Battle of Blenheim poem, and Deborah Pearlstein weighed in on the discussion about Chris Hayes’ controversial suggestion that the label of “hero” is too often used to refer to US service personnel. Deborah also posted a snippet from the NY Times report on Obama’s “Kill List” in the conflict...
Fred Shapiro and Michelle Pearse have just published in the Michigan Law Review "The Most-Cited Law Review Articles of All Time." It is a fascinating read, and includes some choice nuggets about international law scholarship. Among the more interesting findings is that of the recent era (1990-2009) only three international law scholars were among the most-cited: Curtis Bradley,...
Rather than deride opponents as the "black helicopter" crowd, the proponents of US ratification of UNCLOS should take seriously the upcoming hearings as a chance to weigh the complex policy choices presented by UNCLOS. Prof. Craig Allen of the University of Washington offers this very sensible and persuasive take at (of all places) Fox News: The decision to ratify a treaty...
The NYT has another big expose today on one of the Obama Administration's secret war, this time detailing the President's authorization of cyberattacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to...
Syria has claimed that anti-government forces carried out the massacre in Houla in order to spur other nations into intervening. The UN and other nations have expressed concern that Syria is on the brink of a sectarian civil war. Russia and the US have been trading accusations about the situation in Syria. Anne-Marie Slaughter at FP posits that Syria is not a problem from hell...
Will there be a serious legal blowback to the NYT's article on US Drone Strike war, detailing President Obama's personal involvement in the "kill list"? The Iranian propaganda machine is already revving up its engines, but is there going to be a more serious legal and moral reaction akin to the Bush Administration's war on terror interrogation and surveillance policies? To...
BBC has a video report of another poison attack in Afghanistan girls' school rooms, allegedly carried out by the Taliban. A Yemeni Nobel laureate claims the US drone strikes in her country are ineffective as they are hitting mainly civilians rather than militants. The Washington Post also reported that the drone strikes were sparking anger and creating more sympathy for al-Qaeda...
The Special Court for Sierra Leone sentenced Charles Taylor to 50 years today following his conviction for 11 counts of war crimes. He will get six-years' credit for the time he has served since being in custody in The Hague. The ICC Appeals Chamber has unanimously rejected the Prosecution's appeal on the Pre-Trial Chamber I's decision declining to confirm the charges...
