Watching the commentary on the Israel-Gaza conflict, I’m struck again by the divide between how the NGO and human rights community sees the laws of war and how national militaries view them. The law professor Kenneth Anderson wrote a very good article on this divide almost twenty years ago.
nytimes.com/2003/04/13/mag…

In his speech today, President Biden endorsed reform of the United Nations Security Council in more detailed and fulsome terms than most recent U.S. presidents. Specifically, he argued for new permanent and elected members of the Council. (1/19) His reference to Council reform in the speech was foreshadowed by @USAmbUN and others in the administration and is part of a broader push to emphasize the UN and the UN Charter.
usun.usmission.gov/remarks-by-amb…

I had the opportunity to speak with a veteran war crimes prosecutor recently and (with their permission) I’m sharing some of their thoughts about the Ukraine investigation, and war crimes investigations generally: Something important to remember is that there is a lot of awful stuff that happens in war—including civilians getting killed--and only a subset of that awful stuff is going to be criminal.

A few thoughts on Bolton: He is not a neoconservative. He has little interest in exporting democracy or human rights or in restructuring other societies. He supported the Iraq War but his preference was to withdraw soon after Saddam was ousted rather than engage in nationbuildlng He is deeply skeptical of certain multilateral institutions, which he believes tend to obscure the realities of power, but he does not believe the United States should abandon treaty commitments, including its commitments to NATO allies.