Jonathan Power • TFF - The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research

Kosovo, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Chechnya, the Bakassi Peninsular. All of them disputed territories but only one, the last named, a sizable oil-rich wedge of land lying between Nigeria and Cameroon, has been taken to the International Court of Justice (World Court) for adjudication. Why not the others? There is no good reason, apart from, in the latest situation, hubris on the Russian side and an inflated sense of self-importance on the Georgian side, partly because America has encouraged this.… Continue

Ex: Jonathan Power Subject Irony of ironies. The U.S., which under President George W. Bush ¨unsigned¨ its membership of the International Criminal Court and then waged a ferocious campaign to persuade other countries to promise to exempt the U.S. from future prosecution on pain of having their military aid withdrawn, is now emerging as the behind-the-scenes flag bearer of the court. The country which has a long history of refusing to ratify treaties- the League of Nations for one- or just forg… Continue

Ex: Jonathan Power Subject: Looking at the end of Israel Date: April 30th 2008 Even Jimmy Carter, who single handedly (without much Jewish appreciation) has done more to make Israel secure than any other living person, can’t change the march of demographics. Within the boundaries of the state of Israel and the Occupied Territories there are 5.4 million Jews and 4.6 million Palestinians. The Palestinian birth rate is almost three times that of the Israeli Jews. If anything the Jewish populat… Continue

Ex: Jonathan Power Subject: Paris '68- the wrong story. Date: April 24th 2008 If May '68 in Paris was a turning point in European-American culture, which I doubt, when did the mood begin? With the songs of the Beatles who started in 1961? (And to my mind the most enjoyable film of the last decade, ³Across the Universe², makes that claim as well as it can be made.) Or was it the founding of Amnesty International in the same country also in 1961 which brilliantly merged the growing post war sense… Continue

Ex: Jonathan Power Subject: U.S. torture- when can the prosecutions start? Date: April 20th 2008 If the U.S. prosecution system wasn´t so generally competent I would advocate referring the U.S. to the International Criminal Court so that senior figures in the Bush Administration could be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity, in particular the use of torture. But it is competent, although it has been hamstrung by the clever legal footwork of the Bush administration plus the use of the… Continue