Neutrality Is Not Blindness

Interpol Is Doing Russia’s Dirty Work, with barrister Ben Keith, Politico, January 24, 2023. "Interpol’s member countries pledge to work together to prevent genuine criminals from escaping justice, and the system is based on the presumption that all its members are acting in good faith. But like other authoritarian members of Interpol, Russia abuses that presumption to pursue enemies of Putin’s regime. That has to stop, and Interpol has all the tools it needs to do so — including suspending Russia from the organization."

Kick the Russians Out

The Indecency of the Olympic Games, Newsday, February 18, 2018. "Anyone who thinks that politics are new to the Olympics doesn’t know the Games. But there are politics, and then there are politics. The politics of the 2018 Winter Games are blatant. And they’re working."

Interpol and the Authoritarians

Way To Go, Interpol, Newsday, December 4, 2106, "At its latest meeting, the General Assembly voted four new members to the executive committee. That’s where the trouble starts. The new president of the committee is Meng Hongwei, the vice minister of public security in China. In other words, he’s in charge of enforcing the world’s biggest police state, a police state with a history of abusing Interpol for its own purposes."

Interpol, the Palestinians, and Standards for Membership

Will Interpol Be Able to Create Fair Standards for Membership?, Forbes, November 30, 2016, "Contrary to media reports, a Palestinian effort to win admission to Interpol has not been rejected. As I noted in my previous post, it has been postponed, pending a report on membership criteria to be conducted by Hans Corell, former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel of the United Nations."

Who Pays for Haiti's Cholera Epidemic?

"When the UN Has to Pay, You Pay," Newsday, August 28, 2016, "When an international organization screws up, who’s responsible? The answer, too often, is no one. And if it’s the United Nations that’s at fault, and it does pay up, guess what? It’s your money they fork over."

The Olympics And International Order, Part 3

The Olympics And International Order, Part 3, Forbes, August 2, 2016, "For the past two days, I’ve been commenting on the relationship between the Olympic Games and international order. On Sunday, I summarized the founding ideology of the modern Games, which were, in a word, supposed to promote a particular conception of civilization. On Monday, I explored how the idea of the civilized nation fit into this framework. But of course, the idea of the nation-state implies the concept of patriotism — or nationalism. The Olympics have never quite known what to do with nationalism. On the one hand, the modern Games were supposed to reinforce national loyalties in an era when they seemed threatened by mass movements such as socialism. On the other hand, nationalism was supposed to be a tolerant force, and to be embodied in a civilized nation that accepted and embodied Western institutions and ideas about world order."

The Olympics And International Order, Part 2

The Olympics And International Order, Part 2, Forbes, August 1, 2016, "The modern Olympics, those that began in 1896, were founded, as I discussed yesterday, on four pillars: they were for men only, they were for amateurs only, they were for civilized nations only, and they were democratic, in the sense that they were equally open to all classes. The pillar of democratic sport survives; the pillars of female exclusion and amateurism, obviously, have not. Today. I’ll turn to the final pillar: nationalism, and the idea of the civilized nations."

The Olympics And International Order, Part 1

The Olympics And International Order, Part 1, Forbes, July 31, 2016, "Friday’s opening of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, will mark a highlight in the sporting calendar. But the Olympics – or, more properly, the International Olympic Committee that controls them – are also just another international organization. The Olympics tell us a lot about how society and the international system have changed, for good and ill, since the modern Games began in 1896 in Athens, Greece."

IOC Should Have Kicked Russian Athletes Out of the Olympic Games in Rio

IOC Should Have Kicked Russian Athletes Out of the Olympic Games in Rio, Newsday, July 31, 2016, "When the Olympic Games open in Brazil on Friday, Russian athletes will be there. Not all of them, but many. It would be better for the games, and the other athletes, if the International Olympic Committee had banned Russia."

The Mirage of Engagement

‘Tent’ Membership Has Its Problems, Newsday, April 5, 2015. "The nuclear deal with Iran announced by President Barack Obama on Thursday is a mirage -- an agreement now to agree later. But it stands for something bigger: the belief that it's better to have the bad guys inside the tent than out of it."

Russian Harrassment Through Interpol

Putin’s Long Arm, Weekly Standard, February 20, 2015, "In Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine, Russia works through bribery, fear, and force to destroy its opponents. In the West, it works through Interpol and the U.S. Treasury. If Moscow decides to target you, being in the United States won’t protect you from Russian harassment. In fact, it makes you a better victim."

Interpol's Strengths and Abuses

Necessary Reforms Can Keep Interpol Working in the U.S. Interest, with David Kopel, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2861, December 11, 2013. " The U.S. should act to protect U.S. citizens and individuals with a U.S. nexus who are unjustly targeted by an Interpol notice or diffusion and should seek to reform Interpol’s diffusion system."