In times of conflict, such as in the escalating hostilities in the Middle East, governments committed to international law need to be prepared to defend it and in particular protect humanitarian and human rights norms.

Israel used the word preemptive to describe its strikes on Iran over a week ago. The U.S. described its strikes over the weekend as a deterrent. And Iran is claiming the right to self-defense. So what does international law say about all this? For that ...

In the early hours of January 3, the United States armed forces executed an astounding operation. American air, land, and sea units destroyed Venezuela’s air defenses, sent in Special Forces that took out President Nicolás Maduro’s security team, and ...

There is a fashionable claim that international law is outdated, a relic of 1945, a slow machine in a fast world. Multipolar competition, technological acceleration, and information warfare, the argument goes, have made the old system irrelevant. That claim sounds reasonable but dangerously shallow.

Recently, Prime Minister Mark Carney — perhaps the ultimate liberal insider — gave a seminal speech at Davos, declaring the demise of the rules-based international order and ushering in a new period of might-based diplomacy.