war crimes

Americans Still Fumble in the Dark for Facts on Torture

by Karen J. Greenberg

The persistent efforts of scholars and human rights advocates are chipping away at the secrecy surrouding America's use of torture under the banner of national security in the War on Terror. 

Henry Kissinger: A War Criminal Still at Large at 100

by Greg Grandin

Henry Kissinger was instrumental in Nixon's decision to undertake the illegal bombing of Cambodia. His foreign policy machinations also led him to push Nixon to the actions that led to Watergate and the president's downfall, though Kissinger has remained unaccountable. 

As a Massachusetts Museum Exhibits Parts of "Hanoi Hilton," Survivors Reflect

Salvaged remnants of the POW camp have been reconstructed by the American Heritage Museum in Massachusetts. 

My Father Gave Eichmann the Close-Up He Wanted

The author's father directed the live telecast of Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem, using a cinematographical approach to raise the harrowing question of how a bureaucratic mediocrity could have engineered a genocide. The Israeli government's growing concern with the victims eclipsed this curiosity about the perpetrators. 

Can Japan-Korea Relations Resolve Historical Disputes?

The government of South Korea has dropped its demand for Japanese companies to pay victims of forced labor during World War II. Many Koreans have called the concession a national humiliation, and some surviving victims say they won't accept compensation from Korean sources. 

Poland Claims Germany Refuses Participation in Talks for WWII Reparations

Six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed during the second world war. Poland's nationalist government seeks to void agreements made under Communism to release Germany from liability. 

The Conventional Wisdom About War Crimes is Wrong

by Brian Klaas

Ideology can be seductive, and doesn't require monstrous people to incite monstrous acts. 

Why Should War Criminals Operate with Impunity?

by Lawrence Wittner

When major military powers like Russia, China and the United States withhold participation in the International Criminal Court, it allows war criminals to do as they please. Leading a more stable international order means joining fully with the ICC. 

Distant Moments: Reviewing Joan Scott's "On the Judgment of History"

by David A. Bell

The belief in History as a force driving events toward greater enlightenment has long allowed people to punt on making judgment and taking action to future generations. Joan Scott's book examines the seductive power of this faith. 

What Did We Do in Indochina? Robert Buzzanco Interviewed

"There’s widespread politically useful misinformation about the war. And there’s also widespread liberal apologetics for the war."

Can the US Credibly Condemn Russian Attacks on Civilians?

by Paul Lovinger

Are American military actions different from Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure only in degree? 

More War Crimes Will Follow in Ukraine

by Fred Zilian

To those who believed that war and war crimes in Europe in the 21st century had become unthinkable, Thucydides offers us a simple yet powerful statement: “War is a violent teacher.”

Russia Has a Long and Cruel Record of Attacking Hospitals

by Leonard Rubenstein

For a century and a half, international law has prohibited attacks on hospitals, and for as long, such attacks have continued, because of the lack of accountability, argues a scholar of healthcare during war.

How the Soviet Union Helped Establish the Crime of Aggressive War

by Francine Hirsch

Putin's claims to "denazify" Ukraine are an egregious affront to the historical role of the Soviet Union in establishing the Nuremberg tribunal, and its insistence in prosecuting aggressive war itself as a crime. 

The U.S. Can Legally Intervene in the Ukraine Should Russia Invade

by Anthony J. Colangelo

The United States should seek to prevent war between Russian and Ukraine. But if the US intervenes, it's vital that it articulate a rationale that validates and strengthens international law. 

Should Germany Prosecute the Few Surviving Nazis?

by David Motadel

"Most of the perpetrators of the Holocaust have passed away, but German courts still have an opportunity to prosecute those who remain alive. It is the final chapter in the country’s long and not very successful history of ensuring justice for their victims."

The History the Japanese Government Is Trying to Erase

by Chelsea Szendi Schieder

  An academic involved in the recent "comfort women" controversy while teaching in Japan warns "In failing to teach what the wartime state did, the Japanese government only emboldens the forces of misogyny and racism and cultivates new generations of violence."

Narrative Napalm: Malcolm Gladwell's Apologia for American Butchery

by Noah Kulwin

Reviewer Noah Kulwin argues Malcolm Gladwell's book on the rise of American air power misrepresents the military history of World War II, wrongly elevates Curtis LeMay to the status of a heroic genius, and blithely passes over the vast carnage of incendiary and atomic bombings. 

How the Shocking Use of Gas in World War I Led Nations to Ban It

"In 1925, the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Protocol, which prohibited the use of chemical and biological agents in war, but did not stop nations from continuing to develop and stockpile such weapons."

The Other Nuremberg Trials, Seventy-Five Years On

by Erica X. Eisen

The defense of capitalism during the Cold War meant that businesses and businessmen who collaborated in war crimes went unpunished.