Louis René Beres
Message to UN and Europe: Palestinian Terrorism Always Violates International Law
There can never be any greater form of power in world politics than power over death. Paradoxically, this pre-eminent form of power is almost entirely unrecognized by both scholars and policymakers. The principal result is that...
Israel, counter-terrorism and the future of immortality
In the final analysis, there can never be any greater form of power in world politics than power over death. Paradoxically, this preeminent form of power is almost entirely unrecognized by both scholars and policy-makers. The...
Influencing North Korea’s nuclear calculations: Trump’s obligation to think strategically
It should now be obvious that the North Korean ruler has no intention of giving up his country’s growing nuclear weapons program. To insistently demand “complete denuclearization” from Kim Jung Un represents a foolish...
The US “Defeat” of ISIS: An Improbable Victory
Rabbi Eleazar quoted Rabbi Hanina, who said: "Scholars build the structure of peace in the world." (The Babylonian Talmud, Order Zera'im, Tractate Berakoth, IX)
On several occasions, US President Donald Trump has proudly announced the "defeat"...
Trump’s Defense of Saudi Arabia After Khashoggi Murder Violates Law and Justice
It’s not just about the 2012 Magnitsky Act. President Donald Trump’s recent affirmation of support for Saudi Arabia–even with incontrovertible evidence of Saudi criminality in the Jamal Khashoggi murder–reflects willful indifference to much wider sources of pertinent...
Adam Smith, Trump-style economic policy, and Black Friday side-eye
Black Friday is a good time to recall certain "classical" observations about economics and society. We ought to recall Adam Smith, both his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and his much better-known Inquiry into the Nature and Causes...
Donald Trump’s Accelerating War on Truth and Justice
For US President Donald Trump, policymaking by imposed chaos and deliberate incoherence has become the new normal. Again and again, we learn that this president’s seat-of-the-pants decisions are founded on contrivance; inevitably, these decisions...
Nuclear decision-making and nuclear war: an urgent American problem
Carl von Clausewitz wrote, “Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.” His classic warning remains starkly relevant to the United States, nowhere more so than in the context of nuclear war....
Undermining National and International Law: The Expected Costs of Nuclear Treaty Termination
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be...
When Realism is Unrealistic: Trump’s Foreign Policy as Impediment to US and Allied Security
"You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter."
Maya Angelou, recited at US President Bill Clinton's inauguration,...