Louis René Beres
Israel, Counter-Terrorism and International Law: Challenges of Systemic Analysis
“The existence of `system’ in the world is obvious to every observer of nature, no matter whom.”-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (1959)
Whether conspicuous or obscure, terrorism presents itself as a systemic challenge. This means, inter alia,...
Viva la Muerte!: Gun Violence And America’s Culture Of Death
It’s grimly ironic. Though analyzed endlessly, America’s epidemic mass shootings remain difficult to explain. To be sure, the heinous killings are the work of starkly disturbed individuals. But this fact is true by definition. Ipso...
Could Israel Safely Deter a Nuclear Iran?
By Louis René Beres and John T. Chain
Iran's new medium range missile, Shehab-3, is shown in public for the first time at a military parade in Tehran last September. (Reuters)
Whatever their current disagreements on the reasonableness of...
Putin’s Nuremberg-Level Crimes: A Deeper Look Behind the News
n world politics and international law, meaningful explanation must always begin with the solitary human being, with the microcosm. This generalized individual, regardless of nationality, seeks to maximize one form of power above all others. In...
Analyzing Vladimir Putin: Is Joe Biden Dealing With A “Normal” Adversary?
Assessing an adversarial head of state is not usually a psychiatric task. For the most part, such high-value strategic appraisals need not be directed by any deliberate search for “abnormality.” Among other things, this...
Fragmentation, Aggression, Genocide: Deeper Meanings of Russia’s War Against Ukraine
“But tell me, my brothers, if humanity still lacks a goal, is humanity itself not still lacking? Thus inquired Zarathustra.”-Friedrich Nietzsche, Zarathustra
It’s hard to imagine anything decent emerging from Vladimir Putin’s genocidal aggression against Ukraine, but...
Remembering Nuremberg: Legal Obligations To Remove And Prosecute Vladimir Putin
Nullum crimen sine poena, “No crime without a punishment”
Though US President Joseph Biden was initially criticized for interfering in Russia’s “sovereign jurisdiction,” no allegation of “intervention” could have been more sorely mistaken. In this matter, the Nuremberg Principles are...
Why President Biden’s Call for Putin’s Removal Should Not Be “Walked Back”
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
– US President Joe Biden, March 26, 2022
Though rarely recognized, international law is part of the law of the United States. It follows, among other things, that...
Why Joe Biden’s Call For Vladimir Putin‘s Removal Was Law-Enforcing
Let’s begin at the beginning. International law is part of the law of the United States. It follows, among other things, that if the American president’s recent call for Vladimir Putin’s departure was consistent...
Warding Off Calamitous “Silence” Risks of A U.S.-North Korea Nuclear War
“It is in the thick of a calamity that one gets hardened to the truth, in other words, to silence.”
Albert Camus, The Plague
An accelerating nuclear threat
By August 2021, it was clear that nuclear-armed North Korea...