Politics & law RSS

Human rights NGOs are often subject to relentless criticism by those they critique, and this is particularly the case when authoritarian regimes grow furious with them for making these abuses public, demanding an end to them, and affirming the importance of justice and accountability. Non-state actors who are also criticized for human rights violations will … Continue reading »

Last fall, to little fanfare, the U.S. Copyright Office granted an exemption to a longstanding restriction on digital access to copyrighted books and movies, allowing academic researchers to bypass encryption so they can apply sophisticated datamining techniques to contemporary books and films. These same techniques have yielded powerful insights in the financial, science and medical … Continue reading »

Most Americans probably encountered the insidious notion of “replacement theory” for the first time in the wake of the horrific mass murder of 10 African Americans in Buffalo, New York in May. The shooter targeted a Black neighborhood for reasons detailed in a crude 180-page “manifesto” posted online shortly before his attack, which emphasized a … Continue reading »

Jonathan Simon and Sarah DiMagno Last week’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), on June 24, 2022, is a stunning result notwithstanding the unusual warning it was coming (in the March leak). It is hard to think of another Supreme Court … Continue reading »

  The United States Supreme Court’s history and jurisprudence is rooted in a colonial violence, Indigenous land dispossession, genocide, and slavery, but we are still surprised when, in 2022,  it determines a woman no longer has a constitutional right to bodily autonomy. Why? I turned this question inward and now share my thoughts about it … Continue reading »

To a large degree, the success of the hearings of the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 insurrection will depend on the Wyoming Republican congresswoman and vice-chair of the committee, Liz Cheney. Although I have disagreed with almost every substantive position she has ever taken, I salute her courage and her patriotism. And I wish her success.

Yes there are many California and SF specific factors behind the June 7 recall of progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin including California’s easy recall rules and the outsized role of rightwing tech donors, the relatively small Black population. Still the recall is an indicator (among many) of just how politically difficult it is to truly transform … Continue reading »

Turkey’s treatment of the Kurds is now center stage — but not because allies have woken up to the injustice of Kurds’ systematic oppression. Instead, it’s because Turkey is effectively threatening to block the admittance of Finland and Sweden to NATO unless they agree to crack down on Kurdish militants. For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seeing an opportunity to further cement his nationalist agenda, it’s a bold gambit. The tepid response from NATO allies so far suggests he might be successful.

The U.S. supreme court’s upcoming decision to reverse Roe v Wade (an early draft of which has been leaked) doesn’t ban abortions; it leaves the issue to the states. As a result, it will put another large brick in the growing wall separating blue and red America.

Since the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi and, in particular, since the mid-2000s, there has been a growing and considerable amount of academic research taking place in Rwanda by global researchers, particularly from Europe and North America. Few countries in Africa have achieved such academic research attention, and much of it pertains to the genocide … Continue reading »

As we commemorate the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi—which took place 28 years ago in April of 1994—it is essential to reflect on the failures of many different individuals, organizations, and governments that enabled the genocide. We are commemorating the genocide because of the decisions with catastrophic consequences that U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Madeleine … Continue reading »

We must move beyond abstractions and theories and broad concepts in the study and practice of international affairs toward engagement with the individual and his or her narrative, and how the individual lives and experiences that vast world that encompasses “international affairs.” In so doing, we will care more and cultivate our empathy, we will … Continue reading »

The COVID-19 pandemic thrust nearly all of public and private life online, exacerbating the consequences for those on the wrong side of the digital divide. Some of those consequences — such as struggles to access employment, healthcare, and education — are more familiar than others. But the less obvious consequences are no less grave, as … Continue reading »

The invasion and brutal attack by Russian forces on Ukraine has brought tremendous suffering to millions of Ukrainians, including those in higher education sector. Dozens of universities have been bombed, and hundreds of thousands of students and academics have fled their homes. Research and teaching have been disrupted almost everywhere across Ukraine. The global academic … Continue reading »

Babi Yar is the single most symbolic site of the Holocaust in Ukraine and across the former Soviet Union; it captures the predominant way in which the Germans and their allies massacred Jews on Soviet and Ukrainian soil, what priest and author Patrick Desbois has called “the Holocaust by bullets”.