Tag: war

Podcast recommendations to make sense of these uncertain times

Many of my favourite international law/world affairs podcasts dealt with the war in Ukraine in the past two weeks, here’s what’s worth a listen. It feels kind of insensitive to indulge in brilliant professional conversations or clever writings when it’s on the account of millions of people suffering, but at the same time it’s more important than ever to find trusted sources and be well informed. When the situation is unfolding and things can change by the hour, news items have a pretty short expriation span, and I think the ones that stay useful even after the facts change are…

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We the peoples…

“… of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scrouge of war…” starts the preamble of the Charter of the UN. I am no expert to wirte an extensive post about what’s happening in the world right now, and I have a very different post half-prepared (or half-finished) about Russia to be shared sometime, but as everybody, I have thoughts. Instead of pretending to be knowledgeable about this stuff, let me share those. Fanatic as I am about the ideals of the post world war system of international organizations, I have a dove-shaped copy of the above…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! I kept watching these Spanish news channels for language learning purposes even before things got interesting. The one thing I can thank the Catalan government now is for contributing to my education like that. But jokes aside, I keep wondering about the right to self-determination in this context, as to what about the rights of those Catalans who do not wish to switch nationalities and most probably loose their EU citizenship? Secession is indeed a very delicate issue with a bunch of questions which even the most seasoned constitutionalists only guessing the answers to. Check out this week’s…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, everybody! We have the nicest fall weather in Hungary these days, I hope you are doing good too. There are a lot of disturbing things going on in the world right now, from natural disasters through political nonsense to harrassment of women. Even if you are fortunate enough to be safe from it all, please take a moment to think about how you could help. Because we all can help, I believe and I will keep repeating this. Here’s a couple more disturbing but important stories for you… Populist International Law? The Suspended Independence and the Normative Value…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! I hope this finds you safe and well. Here’s a bunch of ways to help hurricane victims and here are others to help Mexico after the earthquake. I hope you’ll consider to contribute if you can! Most of my sources had a short week, so there were less posts, but lots happened! Here’s what I recommend. This hurricane season shows why small islands pushed so hard for climate action And also why measurable action cannot be delayed any more. What would war with North Korea look like? Not good, not at all good. It wouldn’t be simple and…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, everybody! I hope your week was better, than mine! I had this quite serious cold sticking through most of it making it quite hard for me to function normally. Which I still needed to do. This weekend I am attending a two day learning training which I am excited about, even though I am still not well enough, and despite this means I will not have any weekend or time to rest at all. Oh well, maybe next week… What I am really sad about, though, is the end of summer, which I feel has just passed me…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, everybody! I hope you are all safe and well! When I complained about being short of news, I didn’t exactly wish for anything close to this. One of my politics professors used to say that the greatest guarantee we have against a third world war is the nuclear bomb itself. Because all parties are very well aware that once it’s out, all hells will break loose. I do hope he was right. Also, I will repeat that any policy that encourages people to hate others for what they are or where they are coming from is wrong. And…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! This week was incredibly heat-wave-y in most of Europe that may or may not be a result of climate change. I am fully aware that I wrote the same about extreme cold a few months before, these are just the times we’re living. I admit I like this weather, but many countries in Europe are just not used to this kind of heat, not to talk about the  health implications of extreme temperatures. I hope you are all safe. Let’s do a little Sunday reading. Is ISIS conceding defeat? And even if it would be, would this be…

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Sunday Smack

I wish everybody a peaceful, relaxing holiday filled with love and joy! Whatever religion you follow, I hope you are spending these days surrounded by loved ones, doing things you enjoy. I wish I could present you with some light topics this weekend, but this was actually a pretty eventful week in terms of world affairs. Here’s your reading. Security Council Passes New Aleppo Resolution. Monitors to Be Deployed Hopefully the Security Council can now take real actions to put an end to the bloodshed that’s been going on for too long. Coping With Tragedy in South Sudan Another SC…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! Christmas is approaching more quickly than I would be comfortable with. At this point, I don’t even know how am I going to finish off everything on my to do list in just six days. In world affairs, this week was mostly about very disturbing news from Aleppo. Clicking here you can find ways to help, if you can, please do. In other news, António Guterres took the oath of office this week to be the 9th Secretary General of the United Nations from January 1. In anticipation of his term we shouldn’t forget about the merits of…

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