Frontlines and Backrooms

Richard Falk reflects on the structure of international law and its relationship to power in today’s world. A former UN Special Rapporteur and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, Falk has spent decades examining how global order is shaped — not only by legal principles, but by political will, strategic interests, and the realities of power. From the architecture of the United Nations and t...

In this week’s Brief, we examine a turning point in the global order - not driven by war or economic collapse, but by a visible shift in how power is exercised. From the Munich Security Conference to the Strait of Hormuz, and from NATO tensions to the U.S. position toward Cuba, this episode traces how alliances are being tested, diplomatic language is changing, and long-standing assumptions about...

In this episode of Frontlines & Backrooms , we speak with Mona Ali Khalil , a veteran public international lawyer and former Senior Legal Officer at the United Nations, about the growing crisis facing the international legal order. At a moment when conflicts in Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, and elsewhere are testing the limits of the UN system, the central question becomes unavoidable: is international...

The Strait of Hormuz - the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes - is effectively closed. Ship traffic has collapsed, oil prices are surging, and the conflict in the Gulf is expanding beyond the battlefield. From Europe’s fuel shock to China’s strategic dilemma, the consequences are already global. In this Brief, we break down what the closure of Hormuz means for...

This week’s Frontlines & Backrooms Brief examines the escalating crisis around Iran — from competing narratives about the nuclear program to the broader regional and global consequences. While political debate in Washington focuses on who provoked whom, the reality on the ground is far more dangerous: missiles are falling across the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and the global economy...

Five years after the war in Ukraine began, Europe gathered in Kyiv to project unity. But beneath the symbolism, structural fractures are widening, from Hungary and Slovakia’s defiance to the rise of the far right across the continent, and the growing realization that Washington may no longer be a predictable anchor. Meanwhile, in Washington, President Trump’s State of the Union address felt less l...

The Palestinian Authority crisis is no longer abstract. The broader Palestinian leadership crisis now exposes a deeper generational rupture. In this episode, Professor Nathan Brown analyzes the erosion of the Palestinian Authority’s relevance, the emergence of the Board of Peace, and the structural imbalance that continues to define Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. Recorded two days before the first...

Before the interviews, before the debates — this is the context. This week’s Brief moves from Munich to Washington, and from the language of security to the language of capital. 00:00 Introduction 00:36 Munich and the Order It Defends 05:10 Gaza as Real Estate 10:45 Jesse Jackson — A Strategic Hope 19:23 Conclusion From the framing of global order at the Munich Security Conference, to the institut...

In this episode of Frontlines & Backrooms , Professor Rebecca Gould examines how erasure operates beyond physical destruction - through language, institutions, and the regulation of speech. Drawing from her book Erasing Palestine , the conversation explores how free speech becomes a terrain of political control, how legal frameworks shape public discourse, and how knowledge itself can become a...

Drawing on forensic linguistics, international law, and contemporary political discourse, we explore how rhetoric can move from speech to institutional practice — and how patterns of language may establish legal responsibility. Timestamps: 00:00 INTRODUCTION 02:50 FORENSIC LINGUISTICS — PROVING GENOCIDAL INTENT 09:46 FROM RHETORIC TO LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY 17:02 LANGUAGE AS EVIDENCE 20:28 WHEN RHETO...

In this episode of Frontlines & Backrooms , Professor John Quigley examines how international courts interpret rhetoric, intent, and patterns of speech in genocide litigation. Drawing on the Rwanda and Bosnia cases — and the current proceedings related to Gaza — we explore how courts determine plausibility, how intent is inferred, and what obligations third-party states carry under internation...

This week’s Brief moves from Gaza’s reconstruction to Lisbon’s political shift — and ends with a reflection on the politics of attention. In Washington, Israel joins the so-called “Board of Peace” tasked with overseeing Gaza’s future, even as international legal institutions continue to examine the war’s consequences. What does reconstruction mean without legitimacy? And who decides what peace loo...

Gaza: The Architecture of the Exception Gaza is often described as a humanitarian crisis or a war zone. This episode approaches it differently — as a political and institutional structure built over decades. Across voices from history, international law, regional politics, and media studies, this gateway episode examines how Gaza came to function as a permanent exception: governed without consent,...

Brief #8 — Iran on the Edge, Trade Without Trust, and a World Re-aligning While the risk of war in the Persian Gulf continues to rise, a quieter but equally important transformation is underway. In this week’s Frontlines & Backrooms Brief , we examine the mounting pressure on Iran — the demands being placed on it, the risks of escalation, and the consequences a new regional war would have for...

Brief #7 — Private Messages, Public Pressure, and the Gaza Board In this week’s Frontlines & Backrooms Brief , we examine how diplomacy is being reshaped in real time — not behind closed doors, but in public, through exposed private messages, shifting alliances, and improvised power structures. As President Trump publicly shares private exchanges with world leaders, the traditional backchannel...

This week’s Brief focuses on Iran, a country under its most serious internal pressure in years — from economic collapse and nationwide protests to brutal repression and growing international tension. We examine what’s driving the unrest, the limits of U.S. pressure, and the scenarios now facing the Islamic Republic. We then turn to Gaza and the announced “Phase Two” of the U.S. peace plan — why re...

In this conversation, Mouin Rabbani examines Gaza within the international system — focusing on power, policy, and the political choices that sustain the status quo. We discuss regional dynamics, the sidelining of international law, the limits of the two-state framework, U.S. policy options, and the internal Palestinian political crisis. This is Part II of a two-part episode titled The Gaza Except...

Gaza is often described as a humanitarian crisis. In this conversation, Palestinian political analyst Tamer Qarmout examines Gaza as a political system — one designed to be managed, not resolved. We discuss how Gaza became a permanent exception inside international law, the role of ideology and governance, and why cycles of violence continue without political resolution. This is a full, uncensored...

This week’s Brief looks at a world where power no longer bothers to hide behind rules. From tensions inside NATO over Greenland, to the abduction of Venezuela’s president, to the open return of the Monroe Doctrine in the Americas, precedents are being set in real time — and without consequences. As international law is applied selectively, the message is clear: rules still exist, but only for thos...

In this special New Year edition of the Frontlines & Backrooms Brief, we step back from the headlines to examine what 2025 really revealed — and what 2026 is likely to bring. From a hard turn toward transactional power politics in the Americas, to Europe rearming in survival mode, a frozen war in Ukraine, Gaza metastasizing into a permanent exception, grey-zone warfare in the Pacific, and Afri...

In this interview of Frontlines & Backrooms , we speak with Dina Matar , Professor of Media and Communication at SOAS, University of London. A conversation on how war is sustained not only through violence, but through language, media narratives, and the erosion of knowledge — from epistemic violence to the normalization of destruction. 🎙️ Echo Chamber: Media, Language, and the Gaza War

In the first part of Episode 2, journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous examines how media language and framing shape public perception of violence in Gaza. From the selection of “experts” to the subtle wording of headlines, this conversation explores how context is removed, narratives are normalized, and double standards become invisible — allowing violence to appear acceptable or inevitable. This episo...

A preview of Episode 2 — Echo Chamber: The Media and the Gaza War. Two conversations on how media narratives are formed, repeated, and normalized. 🎙️ Full interviews released on December 28 & 29 at 8 PM GMT .

In this week’s Frontlines & Backrooms Brief , we examine a series of developments that signal a shifting global order. We begin with an extraordinary moment in international politics, as the U.S. president signals new territorial ambitions — this time involving Greenland, a territory belonging to a NATO ally. We then turn to Israel, where the national security minister claims that doctors are...

This week’s Brief begins with a short analysis of the week’s key developments, before moving into a focused commentary on media framing and language — and how they shape whose deaths are mourned, explained, or erased. From Bondi to Gaza, this episode examines how narratives construct moral hierarchy in coverage of violence.