Worry not — the guardians of the rules-based international order are “waiting for the facts” and “monitoring the situation”

My latest together with @justinauriburu.bsky.social No love lost for Maduro, and no apologies made for his regime. But the attack on Venezuela was plainly illegal. States can either say so clearly, or parse their way into a law of boundless exceptions and self-judgment.

"The EU recalls that, under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be upheld. Members of the United Nations Security Council have a particular responsibility to uphold those principles, as a pillar of the international security architecture."

Not to make this about Kelsen but Kelsen warned us that "national law monism" (the view that one's own legal system is the only valid legal system) is the legal theory of imperialism and militarism.

"We express our deep concern and rejection of the military actions carried out unilaterally on Venezuelan territory, which contravene fundamental principles of international law ... enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations." — Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Spain

The report into Karim Khan, the ICC chief prosecutor currently on leave for alleged sexual misconduct, is finished. Now it goes to a panel of judges. In true ICC form, dropped on a Friday at 1800.

This, we argue, created the conditions for certain policy choices to become imaginable in the first place. @lseir.bsky.social @drkmillar.bsky.social @dryunahan.bsky.social @isq-jrnl.bsky.social

In light of yesterday's news on the COVID inquiry in relation to political decision-making, I'm re-posting our recent ISQ article. We show how political elites in the UK, Italy, and Germany varied in the ways they communicated the inevitability of mass death during the onset of the pandemic. 🧵...

⚖️ 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 Investigation of Allegations of Misconduct by the ICC Prosecutor: Bridging the Gaps in the Court’s Regulatory Framework. With the UN OIOS report expected to soon be released, we updated our explainer with @fidh-official.bsky.social. Read it here🔗 4genderjustice.org/our-latest-p...

Leaders around the world welcomed the agreement between Israel and Hamas to exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, with many describing it as a rare moment of hope after two years of a war that has exacted a devastating toll.

The morning "drama at the #ICC" read. BTW, the article omits that the Prosecutor also went after Hamas, it's not only the two Israeli officials. It's just that all the Hamas suspects got assassinated (by Israel). Maybe there's more warrants, who knows... www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Nearly missed this amidst the present day omnicrisis - also worth noting that the critique not only echoes the 'ICC bias' argument but that "The ICC has proven itself incapable of handling and prosecuting proven war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide, and crimes of aggression"

A little more surprised than I should be by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announcement to withdraw from #ICC, labelling it an "instrument of neo-colonialist repression" and saying they will pursue "indigenous mechanisms for the consolidation of peace and justice." www.bbc.com/news/article...

🏆 WCIS Graduate Student Best Paper Award - due 1st October. Any paper presented by a graduate student in the most recent ISA Annual Meeting is eligible for consideration. SELF NOMINATION ENCOURAGED! www.isanet.org/Programs/Awa... I'm on the WCIS exec board, let me know if you have q's about awards!

Funding opportunity for early career researchers 👉 ISA WCIS Deborah Gerner Grant for Professional Development is due 1st October. No subject restrictions (but preference given to conflict resolution, peace in the ME, and/or women in IR). www.isanet.org/programs/awa...

US could hit entire International Criminal Court with sanctions soon www.reuters.com/world/europe...

Watch this interview with Dr. Mohammed Saqr. As Israeli tanks push tonight into Gaza City, the South Part of the Strip, where he is located, is projected to become even more crowded with displaced people who have lost everything. www.democracynow.org/2025/9/15/mo...

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, says UN inquiry

The three most damning paras in the UN Report alleging that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza: Siege starvation, attacks on health care, direct targeting of children as patterns that cannot be explained except if group destruction is one animating purpose.

UK Government 'has not concluded Israel's actions in Gaza are Genocide' www.reuters.com/world/uk/bri...

At least half a million people in Gaza City and the surrounding territory are officially suffering from famine, a global group of experts announced, nearly two years into an unrelenting war in which Israel has blocked most food and other aid from entering the Gaza Strip. nyti.ms/4fOZPmP

"It is a famine we could have prevented.. food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel. It is a famine within a few hundred metres of food.. a preventable famine sustained by complicity" Tom Fletcher from the UN on famine being declared in Gaza City

"The applications are in the hands of two deputy prosecutors in Karim Khan's absence, but ICC sources are concerned they will not submit them for fear of sanctions." ICC arrest warrant applications ready for Israel's Ben Gvir and Smotrich on apartheid charges: www.middleeasteye.net/news/icc-arr...

The five brave Palestinian journalists whom Israel targeted and killed today (left-right): -Anas al-Sharif (correspondent) -Mohammed Qreiqeh (correspondent) -Ibrahim Zaher (camera operator) -Muhammad Al-Khalidi (photojournalist) -Mohammed Noufal (camera operator) -Moamen Aliwa (camera operator)

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

New MSF report on #Gaza. Based on medical data, patients’ testimonies, and first-hand medical witnessing at two MSF clinics in Gaza, the report finds violence by Israeli forces & private American contractors against starved Palestinians at GHF points. #genocide #intlaw msf.org.uk/article/msf-...

The man-made starvation in #Gaza is horrific, inhumane and a blatant violation of the ICJ’s provisional measures ruling and the fundamental principles of #IHL. All restrictions on humanitarian aid must be lifted without delay. Access to food and water are protected under IHL, without exception.

🔥🏟️ New article out: I am very happy that @felixanderl.bsky.social and my paper ”Dangerous arenas: why activists struggle for change in technocratic institutions“ has just been published in @jird-jour.bsky.social and that it’s open access! link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🧶👇🏼 1/

Time Has Run Out: Mass Starvation in Gaza and the Global Imperative at www.justsecurity.org/117962/mass-...

Is this just an opportune clip or is this a spin?

BREAKING: At UN, UK's foreign minister says his country intends to recognize Palestine as a state, following in French footsteps

We geolocated the view out of the window as Jeremy Bowen's team filmed packages falling from a plane over Gaza yesterday. They were dropped into a "dangerous combat zone", which Palestinians are warned not to enter because it would put their lives at risk. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...

Open letter from UK university staff: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities Sign here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

“There are no words in the face of the disaster we are in. Kids are dying before the world ... There is no uglier and more horrible phase than this”

Few if any experts know more about the deliberate use of starvation as a war crime than Alex de Waal. If he says it's happening, it's so.

🥳🎉👏Congratulations to ‪‪@politicsoxford.bsky.social‬ alumnus Brian Kot (MPhil International Relations, 2023) who has won the Sara Norton Prize for 2024-25 for his MPhil thesis entitled ‘Dual-Use Security Dilemma and the US-China AI Technology Race.’!: www.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/brian-k...

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency. "Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die" Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

Do not look away.

The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Haibatullah Akhundzada (Supreme Leader of the Taliban) & Abdul Hakim Haqqani (Chief Justice of the Taliban) for gender & political persecution in Afghanistan. www.icc-cpi.int/news/situati... 1/2

It is dawning on me that for the first time, as I will be teaching a course with a research paper as the final assignment next year, I will have to concretely deal with students using AI for coursework. Any advice? Is there a 'best use case'? What have I done

Solid, if brief, explainer of the right to use force in self-defence and how Israel's actions lack imminence by Marko on @ejiltalk.bsky.social here: www.ejiltalk.org/is-israels-u...

Easy to miss this with all that is going on, but a significant development at the ICC. May shift how we think about investigations, cases (and the role of the defence)