Human Security Centre Human Rights and International Security Research

Israelis appear to be the most incompetent genocidaires to ever walk this earth and are responsible for the only large-scale annihilation campaign in history where the victim population actually increased.

On 16th September, 2014, the HSC’s Executive Director, Julie Lenarz, was asked to comment on the situation in Iraq by the Evening Standard. “We welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement that the government will take whatever steps necessary to confront ISIS. ...

The HSC’s Executive Director, Julie Lenarz, was on BBC Radio Drivetime debating Islamic extremism and Western foreign policy.  

On Tuesday, the jihadist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham) launched a long-planned assault on Iraq, seizing control of Mosul, the country’s second largest city, after taking large parts of the central city of Fallujah and nearby Ramadi in December 2013.

While the Middle East is going through one of the most turbulent periods in history, America is governed by one of the most, if not the most, risk-averse post-war Presidents. The consequences of this unfortunate match are devastating, far-reaching and long-lasting.

There are no signs of any potential intervention by the international community, as long as Assad is not resorting to chemical and biological weapons — also known as the ‘red line’ policy of the Obama administration. But shouldn’t tens of thousands of men, women and children not be a ‘red line’ in themselves?

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies with an extremely arbitrary, reactionary and obscurantist justice system based on the most fundamental codification of Sharia law.

Just six weeks after the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi’s government, Egypt finds itself on the precipice of civil war and complete meltdown.

Since the end of the Cold War, Russia’s influence in the Middle East has been greatly undermined and its policy has changed in emphasis and intensity. While during the clash between the two superpowers – the US and the Soviet Union – the Middle East was part of its ideological battlefield

The idea that the international community was impotent in the face of evil must be wholeheartedly rejected, as it relativises the moral responsibility of those who decided to become a silent accomplice rather than engage in a robust and rigid response to crimes against humanity.