Summary In a world that proclaims human rights as universal, what does it mean that entire peoples are rendered legally nonexistent—human beings for whom, as Hannah Arendt put it, “no law exists”? This essay turns to Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s philosophy of recognition to argue that the Rohingya are not only victims of a humanitarian disaster,…
Introduction One of history’s most troubling paradoxes concerns the Jewish people. For nearly two thousand years, Jews experienced persecution, expulsions, pogroms, discrimination, and ultimately the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered. Yet within a few decades of establishing Israel, many observers came to view the Jewish state as responsible for the dispossession, occupation,…
For the past year the author of this article has, with a Canadian colleague, been deeply involved in an unofficial (“Track II”) diplomatic effort to create a solid foundation for successful Israel-Lebanon direct talks. We are doing our best to facilitate negotiations aimed at permanently ending 78 years of hostilities and instituting close, bilateral security…
Introduction: Gendered Governance under Authoritarianism Authoritarian regimes do not affect men and women in the same way. Rather than governing solely through coercion, they frequently exploit existing patriarchal structures to transform women’s social roles, motherhood, professional identities, and citizenship into mechanisms of political control. Using the aftermath of the failed coup attempt of July 15,…
More than three decades have passed since the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo. During this period, important legal and political changes occurred. Survivors of conflict-related sexual violence who were largely ignored in the immediate post-war years gradually achieved legal recognition through sustained advocacy by survivor groups, women’s organizations and human rights institutions….
In 2009, I was arrested for the first time after participating in protests against the bauxite mining project in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and speaking out about Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Seven years later, I was arrested again and sentenced to ten years in prison for my writings and advocacy on behalf…
Israel’s international standing has undergone a profound and arguably irreversible transformation. Once regarded, despite criticism, as a flawed democracy grappling with complex security threats, Israel is increasingly perceived as a pariah state—isolated not only because of its adversaries, but because of its sustained conduct in Gaza and the West Bank. This shift is not the…
Prologue Human activities such as deforestation, forest fires, mining, industrialized agriculture, the burning of fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, coal), and wars have been threatening nature, civilization, and humans. Those threats weaponize the planet’s temperature. Scientists describe that effect as climate change/climate chaos. Climate change/chaos is global and anthropogenic/artificial. It has been affecting the lives…
There is a particular quality of fire that destroys completely and, in doing so, reveals exactly what must be rebuilt, and by whom. I have spent over three decades fighting for women and girls, often in the world’s most dangerous places. I drafted post-conflict constitutions in Iraq and Kosovo. I worked proudly across five different…
