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Governance & Law North America Policy & Politics

Unmoored from the UN: The Struggle to Ratify UNCLOS in the United States

John Kraus is a Research Associate at the Institute for Defense Analyses. He earned his Master of Arts from SAIS in 2022 and was previously a commercial fishing deckhand for five years. Introduction On July 9, 1982, after three series of multilateral conferences spanning decades of rigorous negotiations, President Ronald Reagan formally announced that the United […]

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Africa Asia Pacific Civil Society Collaboration Economics Energy & Environment Europe Governance & Law International Development Middle East North America Policy & Politics Regional Security & Conflict South America Special Content Topical

International Law’s Role in a Strat-Dominated World

This article originally appeared on May 15, 2023, in the SAIS Europe Journal of Global Affairs. “Even the finest warrior is defeated when he goes against natural law. By his own hand he is doomed and all creatures are likely to despise him.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Verse 31 Introduction Public international lawyers imagine […]

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Civil Society Governance & Law Policy & Politics Regional Security & Conflict South America Topical

Can the Government Police Itself? Colombia’s False Positives Scandal and its Lessons for Atrocity Prevention

Introduction In April of 2022, a Colombian general and ten other servicemembers admitted that they had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.[1] It was the first time that senior Colombian military officials admitted to wrongdoing since the systemic killing of innocents began almost two decades prior in what became known as the “false positives” […]