@cipolicy
Advancing a more peaceful, just & sustainable world by centering people & the planet in US foreign policy. Home of International Policy Journal and UnDiplomatic Pod, The Iran Podcast and Black Diplomats. Learn more at internationalpolicy.org
'You cannot bomb away another country's nuclear program. It's never worked — the knowledge is still there, the machinery is still there.'
CIP's @joecirin.bsky.social on the administration's case for war in Iran:
“Trump openly threatens the territorial sovereignty of yet another NATO ally." @dylanwilliams.bsky.social comments in @commondreams.org on the administration's threat of a full trade embargo against #Spain over its refusal to support strikes on #Iran.
www.commondreams.org/news/iran-sp...
"The overall goal just seems to be to inflict mass destruction and figure things out later. And that's not a good plan"
@mattduss.bsky.social on ABC discussing the #U.S. and #Israeli bombing campaign against #Iran.
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"The prohibition on the use of force was built on the ruins of the last catastrophe. The task now is to ensure it does not have to be rebuilt on the ruins of the next one," warns Khactatryan.
internationalpolicy.org/publications...
Invoke the War Powers Resolution now. Congress has the legal authority to force a vote on the continuation of hostilities within 60 days. Every day that passes without doing so is a day that silence functions as authorization. Members who believe this operation is unconstitutional should say so on the record, in binding procedural terms, not in press releases. Lock in the legal record at the UN before it closes. The Security Council cannot act, but the record of this meeting, the explanations of the vote, and any General Assembly action under Uniting for Peace will matter for accountability processes that may be years away. Silence at the UN now is the erasure of evidence.
Congress and the International Community can move now and quickly to signal that this is an unacceptable breach of the international order, the firmament upon which all nations stand opposed to wars of aggression. internationalpolicy.org/publications...
[The responses of France, Germany, UK, and Australia] "legitimate the legal theory underlying the strikes: that anticipated capability development, assessed by the striking state alone, constitutes sufficient grounds for military action against a country engaged in active negotiations."
"Launching military operations during active diplomatic negotiations, operations that the U.S. president had, days earlier, indicated would wait, is a breach of the most elemental duty of good faith that the Charter’s architecture depends upon." internationalpolicy.org/publications...
The result "is the construction of a new operational norm, one in which the most militarily powerful state on earth reserves to itself the right to use lethal force anywhere, against anyone, for purposes it defines unilaterally, accountable to no external legal authority" argues Davit Khachatryan
Trump's reckless, deadly, and astrategic war on Iran is the latest in a series of violations of international law, and without reprimand from allies and partners it is set to unravel the whole post-World War II edifice of international order. internationalpolicy.org/publications...
You know the latest @cipolicy.bsky.social IPJ article is going to be good when I put the finishing touches on it at 11pm. Get it in your inbox as soon as it's live. open.substack.com/pub/cippolicy
Senior Fellow Negar Mortazavi joined CBS News to discuss the aftermath of the death of Ayatollah Khamenei: "This has turned into a regional war"
"With none of Trump’s public rationales making any sense, the most compelling reason to start a war seems to be to distract from the growing Epstein files scandal." – @joecirin.bsky.social in @newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com/article/2071...
On Saturday, @mattduss.bsky.social told ABC News that Trump offered no real justification for the attack on Iran:
"This is a war of aggression – a grave offense of international law and U.S. law."
Read the full statement 🚨⬇️
internationalpolicy.org/publications...
🚨In response to the launch of major #US and #Israeli hostilities against #Iran, CIP's Executive Vice President @mattduss.bsky.social issued the following statement:
Read the full statement now🚨⬇️
internationalpolicy.org/publications...
Follow @michaelwchamberlin.bsky.social and read the full story here internationalpolicy.org/publications...
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This builds on earlier work at the International Policy Journal looking for demilitarized responses to violence created and exacterbated by militarization. internationalpolicy.org/publications...
SOLUTIONS, DISTILLED: It's the (drug) economy, stupid. • Mexico should honor the request by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances to address the root causes of human rights abuses due to the support, acquiescence, and collaboration between the authorities and cartels • US Congress must adopt comprehensive legislation to restore authority over controlled weapons sales to the Department of State rather than Commerce. • Congress should enforce stronger controls on public arms sales in the United States to ensure traceability and prohibit transactions involving individuals linked to criminals, including cartel members. • Department of Justice should conduct serious investigations into collusion between U.S. businesses and cartels. • Treasury should undertake greater oversight and monitoring to prevent transactions to criminal groups through banks, exchange houses, money transfers, and bitcoin. Michael W Chamberlin for the International Policy Journal
Everything from stricter rules on commercial arms sales to international investigations into local government complicity in disappearances could shift the conflict away from daily and spectacle violence.
internationalpolicy.org/publications...
Because so much of this violence is linked to arms bought from, and drugs sold in, the United States, the US can have an outsized role in scaling back the violence and demilitarizing the conflict, should Congress and a future presidency decide that's a role they want to take.
"The fight against organized crime must use the tools of democracy and justice. Weapons have only brought more violence," Chamberlin writes. internationalpolicy.org/publications...
This militarization of the conflict, combined with impunity for the armed forces that carry it out and the elites that direct it on both sides, has created conditions hostile to peace and justice, as corruption and rule by armed men triumphs. internationalpolicy.org/publications...
Mexico spent 20 years militarizing drug policy "not just by bringing the army in to fight a drug war," writes Michael Chamberlin, but because cartels "transformed into armed criminal enterprises" that sell drugs and also control territories through extortion & domination of local politicians.
Last weekend saw an eruption of violence across Mexico, as Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación retaliated against the capture of their leader with simultaneous attacks in 20 Mexican states. This signals existing power & the risks in contested leadership succession internationalpolicy.org/publications...
EVP @mattduss.bsky.social explains in @foreignpolicy.com why going to war with Iran would not only be illegal, but also catastrophic for the United States ⬇️
NEW in @nytimes.com: “Unlike Venezuela, Cuba’s repressive one-party dictatorship has left the country with no political opposition. ‘Everyone is in jail or in exile,’ said Senior Fellow María José Espinosa."
Read the full piece:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/u...
This domestic volatility unfolds against the backdrop of renewed US-Iran negotiations. Tehran seeks sanctions relief and a path to avoid military escalation with Washington."
www.ispionline.it/en/publicati...
