Articles by: Richard Falk

Toward a Peoples Ukraine Wars Tribunal

Toward a Peoples Ukraine Wars Tribunal

The deepening current Ukraine Crisis is properly linked to the Russian aggression that commenced with a massive military attack against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and has continued to ravage the country since, including inducing a refugee flow numbering several million. There is a broad consensus around the world that such aggression is a criminal violation of international law, and[Read More…]

by 07/05/2022 2 comments World
The Second Level Geopolitical War in Ukraine Takes Over

The Second Level Geopolitical War in Ukraine Takes Over

It has become increasingly clear to the world that there is not one, but two, actually three, distinct levels of conflict embedded in what the world’s media and political leadership deceptively insist of calling the ‘Ukraine War.’ The first level was clearly initiated on February 24, 2022 when Russia launched an aggressive war against Ukraine imperiling its sovereign rights and[Read More…]

by 30/04/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Why Ukraine?

Why Ukraine?

There is no doubt that atrocities have been committed in Ukraine, seemingly by Russian attacking forces, and in a perfect world those who so acted would be held responsible. But the world is highly imperfect when it comes to accountability for international crimes. When the International Criminal Court in 2020 found it had authority to investigate alleged crimes committed by Israel[Read More…]

by 10/04/2022 2 comments World
Who Was Edward Said? Biographically Interpreted and Existentially Recollected

Who Was Edward Said? Biographically Interpreted and Existentially Recollected

[Prefatory Note: This  is an edited text of Remarks on 30 June 2021 at the opening on the Book Launch of Timothy Brennan’s PLACES OF MIND: A LIFE OF EDWARD SAID (2021), an event under the auspices of the Cambridge Centre of Palestinian Studies, moderated by its director, Dr. Makram Khoury-Machool. Also participating in the discussion of Professor Brennan’s book[Read More…]

by 03/07/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Can We Imagine a Just Peace for Palestine?

Can We Imagine a Just Peace for Palestine?

While waiting without even a glimmer of hope for the Trump ‘deal of the century’ the Palestinian ordeal unfolds day by day. Many Israelis would like us to believe that the Palestinian struggle to achieve self-determination has been defeated, and that it is time to admit that Israel is the victor and Palestine the loser. All that needs to be[Read More…]

by 02/03/2019 1 comment Palestine
Bolton’s Red Sky Worldview: ICC, International Law, and Iran

Bolton’s Red Sky Worldview: ICC, International Law, and Iran

Bolton’s Game: Not Sovereignty, Not International Law—Clearing the Path for U.S., Geopolitical Primacy To be sure, on September 10thJohn Bolton, Trump’s National Security Advisor, pushed all the thematic buttons that might beexpected of a luncheon speaker invitedto address the Federalist Society, long known asthe ideological home of rabid advocates of the so-called ‘new sovereignty.’ The hallmark of this pre-Trump neocon[Read More…]

by 27/09/2018 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Donald Trump signs an executive order declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel at the White House on 6 December. Chris KleponisCNP

Trump, The UN, And The Future Of Jerusalem

[Prefatory Note: This post is the modified text of an interview on behalf of the Tasnim News Agency in Iran as conducted by Mohammed Hassani. It tries to assess the wider implications of the UN reaction to Trump’s December 6th decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to follow this by relocating the American Embassy from Tel Aviv[Read More…]

by 01/01/2018 3 comments World
Balfour: Then And Now

Balfour: Then And Now

November 2, is exactly 100 years after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the pledge given to the World Zionist Movement in a letter signed by the British Foreign Secretary to support the establishment of a ‘national home’ in the then Ottoman millet of Palestine. Certainly ‘a day of infamy’ for the Palestinian people and their friends around the world,[Read More…]

by 03/11/2017 1 comment Palestine
Remembering Ebrahim Yazdi

Remembering Ebrahim Yazdi

[Prefatory Note: I had the privilege of knowing Dr. Yazdi, a pharmologist living in Houston until the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, for the last 35 years of his life. A close associate of Ayatollah Khomeini, Dr. Yazdi became Foreign Minister in the Interim Government established immediately after the revolution succeeded, but resigned following the seizure of the American Embassy in[Read More…]

by 13/09/2017 1 comment World
On Anti-Semitism And Anti-Zionism: Charlottesville Through A Glass Darkly

On Anti-Semitism And Anti-Zionism: Charlottesville Through A Glass Darkly

I suggest that Zionists fond of smearing critics of Israel as ‘anti-Semites’ take a sobering look at the VICE news clip of the white nationalist torch march through the campus of the University of Virginia the night before the lethal riot in Charlottesville. In this central regard, anti-Semitism, and its links to Naziism and Fascism, and now to Trumpism, are genuinely menacing,[Read More…]

by 24/08/2017 1 comment World
End of Nuclearism or the End of the World: Utopian Dreams, Dystopian Nightmares

End of Nuclearism or the End of the World: Utopian Dreams, Dystopian Nightmares

We are living amid contradictions whether we like it or not, driving expectations about the future toward opposite extremes. Increasingly plausible are fears that the ‘sixth extinction’ will encompass the human species, or at least, throw human society back to a technology of sticks and stones, with a habitat limited to caves and forests. This dark vision is countered by[Read More…]

by 10/08/2017 1 comment World
UN Under Siege: Geopolitics In The Time of Trump

UN Under Siege: Geopolitics In The Time of Trump

A modified and enlarged version of a talk Richard Falk gave in Geneva a week ago. The audience was a blend of students of all ages from around the world, with almost none from Europe and North America, and several NGO representatives with lots of UN experience.  Why the peoples of the world need the UN: multilateralism, international law, human rights, and[Read More…]

by 01/07/2017 1 comment World
Two Sides Of The Palestinian Coin: Hunger Strike/Gaza

Two Sides Of The Palestinian Coin: Hunger Strike/Gaza

The Palestinian hunger strike protesting Israeli prison conditions was suspended on May 27th after 40 days, at a time when many of the 1000 or so strikers were experiencing serious deteriorations of health, most were by then hospitalized, and the holy period of Ramadan about to commence creating continuity between the daytime fasting of the faithful and the prior desperate[Read More…]

by 29/05/2017 1 comment Palestine
Al-Shayrat Airfield Attack Violates UN Charter

Al-Shayrat Airfield Attack Violates UN Charter

In early morning darkness on April 7th the United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian al-Shayrat Airfield from two American destroyers stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean. It described the targets as Syrian fighter jets, radar, fuel facilities used for the aircraft. It asserted prior notification of Russian authorities, and offered the assurance that precautions were taken to[Read More…]

by 11/04/2017 1 comment Imperialism
The Welcome Condemnation Of Israeli Settlement Expansion

The Welcome Condemnation Of Israeli Settlement Expansion

On December 23, 2016 the UN Security Council by a vote of 14-0 adopted Resolution 2334, notably with the United States abstaining, condemning Israeli settlement expansion. It was treated as big news in the West because the Obama presidency had finally in its last weeks in office refused to use its veto to protect Israel from UN censure. Especially in[Read More…]

by 06/01/2017 1 comment Palestine
UNESCO Censures Israel’s Administration Of Jerusalem

UNESCO Censures Israel’s Administration Of Jerusalem

In response to UNESCO resolutions adopted in October that were highly critical of Israel’s protection of sacred and cultural Islamic heritage sites in Jerusalem, there is again a fiery confrontation between Israel and this UN organ whose actions have so often touched the raw nerves of Western political sensibilities. The main UNESCO resolution ‘deeply deplores’ Israel’s failure to stop a[Read More…]

by 05/11/2016 1 comment World
What Are We to Think?

What Are We to Think?

A cascade of developments should make us afraid of what seems to be emerging politically in the United States at this time. Although politicians keep telling us how great we were or will be or are. Donald Trump has ridden a wave of populist enthusiasm touting his brand with the slogan ‘make America great again’ emblazoned. One wonders whether he[Read More…]

by 31/10/2016 2 comments Imperialism
Failures Of Militarism In Countering Mega-Terrorism

Failures Of Militarism In Countering Mega-Terrorism

  The introduction of this article is devoted to the distinctive challenges posed by this era of mega-terrorism initiated by the 9/11 attacks. The article offers a critique of the American response which is based on a ‘war’ rather than a law enforcement paradigm. An argument is then made to adapt international law to new modalities of conflict while at[Read More…]

by 28/08/2016 1 comment World