In July 2025, the UK government designated Palestine Action as a proscribed terrorist under the Terrorism Act 2000, making it a criminal offence to be a member of, or provide support to, the group. The decision followed...
After years of calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, a ceasefire was recently announced and…those calling for the ceasefire are upset about it. There are some valid reasons to hold off on celebrating, but...
The UN General Assembly meeting has seen a growing number of states recognizing a state of Palestine, including Western powers like France, the United Kingdom and Canada. Debate has swirled over why...
I've had four potential posts on Israel, anti-Israel actions and antisemitism this week. As new events occur, the old post falls to the wayside. I was stuck on whether I should pick one, or try to...
Can human-rights organizations avoid accusations of racism when they criticize certain governments? Can they avoid fueling racism? Zoltán I. Búzás and Lotem Bassan-Nygate test the effectiveness of tactics to counter racism when trying to shame perpetrators.
Things have been rough for Canada. It's engulfed in political turmoil, as Justin Trudeau steps down from leadership and the country braces for a contentious election. Incoming US President Donald Trump has decided to pick on the country, threatening ruinous (to both sides) tariffs and either claiming Canada is the 51st state or that he will make it so. The best that US liberals can do, however, is make jokes about wanting to be part of Canada. As a Canadophile living just south of the border, this has always been a frustration for me; many Americans see Canada as only an extension of their...
Last year I was on a sabbatical in Edinburgh, and my family and I watched Eurovision for the first time. We loved the out-there electro-pop versions of local folk music, got bored by the slow ballads, and generally bought into the hype. This year, we were excited to discover it was streaming for US audiences on Peacock, and watched again. I assumed there would be some tensions over Israel's participation, and was right. There were protests both outside and inside the concert hall against Israel's contestant. I thought this might lead Israel to do badly in the contest. Surprisingly, I was...
Labour MP David Lammy has a new piece in Foreign Affairs called, “The Case for Progressive Realism.” Where his manifesto is punchiest is in its unsparing critiques of British foreign policy: the Conservative Party has, over 14 years…sank deeply into nostalgia and denial about the United Kingdom’s place in the world. The government, for example, crashed out of the European Union without a clear plan for what to do next. It treated with contempt the country’s global reputation for upholding the rule of law…it squandered the United Kingdom’s climate leadership by tearing up net-zero carbon...
Even though the school year is ending, protests against Israel--most prominent on college campuses--will likely continue. Beginning at Columbia University, they gained attention and spread after a heavy-handed police response. Prompted by the Israeli attack on Gaza (retaliation for Hamas' attack on Israel), student protesters are calling on their universities to take action in opposition to Israel such as divestment from companies that do business in Israel. Much of the debate has focused on the protesters themselves. Are they protected free speech? Are they anti-Semitic? Are they driven by...
I recently submitted the below letter to Foreign Affairs in response to their latest issue's set of essays on Israel-Palestine peace. They decided not to run it, and I assume that's because of all the letters they get. However, I worry that we ignore the small-scale peace efforts that may be the best way to advance peace (or see them as problematic) so I wanted to post it here and try to make the case for them. My letter to Foreign Affairs To the editor, I commend Foreign Affairs for the set of essays in the March/April 2024 issue exploring whether and how peace is still possible...
International relations discourse tends to be a bit wonkier than domestic American political debates. While this leads to the frequent lament, from voices like Dan Drezner, that American voters don't care about international relations, it also insulates us from the more frustrating aspects of American politics. IR scholars don't usually have to deal with knee-jerk activisty hot takes. Well, we do now. Apparently leftists think the Houthis--a militant group based in Yemen--are admirable anti-imperialist activists. This is because they've been attacking international shipping in protest of...
A controversy broke out the weekend before Christmas, when Fr. Edward Beck, a Roman Catholic priest, claimed Jesus was a "Palestinian Jew" while discussing the current war between Israel and Hamas. Some may dismiss this as a disingenuous conservative freak-out; for example, the article I linked to was in the New York Post and figures such as Stephen Miller and Erick Erickson were among the outraged. This would be a mistake. Fr. Beck was inaccurate, and such inaccuracies actually make it harder to build peace in the region. History and Christmas Americans are used to fights over the "true...