Politics

Fear has had a huge impact on human societies throughout history, and as science and archaeology are increasingly suggesting through prehistory, too. But my main interest is in how fear has been used as an instrument of power, wielded by rulers to consolidate their authority, and to manage their populations.

It's about catching that surge of emotion, be it offense or anger, usually incited by someone attempting to ignite your social identity or signal an outgroup threat, with a likely aim to shape your thoughts or actions.

The more pronounced a group identity is, especially when an identifiable outgroup exists, the more likely individuals are to dehumanize those not in their group.

For those feeling threatened or inclined to see the world's workings as a conspiracy, it's conveniently easy to blame these perceived machinations on a Jewish elite, given the long and deep-seated history of such allegations.

After the Holocaust, such thinking became widely discredited. In the post-war era, other developments also influenced attitudes towards antisemitism, leading to a significant shift in political antisemitism. However, what persisted were the cultural stereotypes – the entrenched narratives and stereotypes about Jews within the culture, ready to be drawn upon whenever they seemed relevant or useful.

Response to, and resolution of what lay behind the merciless attack, should theoretically still be for peaceful resolution in accordance with the UN Charter.

Prosecutor of Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal

The cumulative impact of these legal instruments indicates, perhaps unsurprisingly, that initiating war is rarely, if ever, lawful. However, responding to acts of war can be justified.

Prosecutor of Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal

Historically, conflicts typically ended with the major players negotiating peace agreements, often including amnesties. The more brutal and involved in crimes a party was, the more significant their role at the negotiation table. This approach changed after the Second World War with the Nuremberg trials.

Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

$1.8 trillion a year is spent subsidizing industries that harm us, predominantly fossil fuels. Redirecting a significant portion of these funds could dramatically accelerate our transition.

First Female President of Ireland & UN Human Rights Commissioner

A significant hurdle is the underestimation of our collective power. The fossil fuel sector and its substantial influence through lobbying and misinformation, spending $4 billion annually to challenge scientific consensus.

First Female President of Ireland & UN Human Rights Commissioner

There are various forms of hostage-taking, each with distinct characteristics. Broadly speaking, one can categorise them into political and criminal hostage-takings. Political hostage-taking involves abducting someone to gain a political leverage—this is the first type. The second type is criminal hostage-taking, where the motive is ransom.

Envoy Who Negotiated Release of Hostages in Lebanon During 1980s

Some foreign dictatorial regimes are bypassing traditional lobbying shops altogether and directly recruiting sitting members of Congress to act as foreign agents.

It's important to note that this isn't just limited to the regimes people often worry about—like Russia, China, Iran, or Venezuela. It's also happening with regimes that are nominal partners of the United States.

For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they've not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they've secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware.

What we're seeing is a broad constellation of nominally independent subsets, even entire industries, that have now come under the umbrella of the foreign lobbying industry. All of these entities have been transformed into go-to vehicles and mouthpieces for foreign regimes.

There's this sense that our institutions have failed us. The very rich generally pay lower effective tax rates than middle-class and lower-income individuals. There's a sense that the system is broken, the rules of the game are rigged.