Costanza Musu, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
When the loss of this heritage is used as a weapon of war, it represents a loss for the country affected as well as for humanity. It targets the memories, history and identity of a people.
In recent decades, most nations have agreed on certain norms to ensure peace, including an end to assassinations. Trump’s move to kill an Iranian general upends this carefully balanced system.
The destruction of a country’s historical and cultural heritage sites is a distressing byproduct of conflict, but there are now strategies in place to prevent it happening.
There are many legitimate ways to critique Donald Trump, but demonizing his voters as cult followers doesn’t help us understand why they are attracted to him and how their world view has developed.
Trump recently warned Iran that the US could target its cultural sites. Many of Iran’s cultural sites carry deep religious meaning for a global Shii community and such a threat risks alienating them.
Although neither side apparently wants conflict, tensions remain over the presence of US troops in Iraq and Iran’s decision to walk away from part of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Klaus W. Larres, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
President Trump’s speech about Iran wasn’t just aimed at that country or the US. He also targeted NATO allies, urging members of the alliance to step up and help US efforts in the Middle East.
Iran’s missile strikes on Iraqi bases in response to the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani have raised tensions between the U.S. and Iran. But war seems unlikely at this point.
An expert on Watergate says that today’s House Republicans have taken precisely the opposite position than the GOP took in 1974 on the president’s power to withhold documents from Congress.
Predictions about how a woman presidential candidate might fare in 2020 are largely speculation, writes a political scientist, because there isn’t enough experience to base those predictions on.
Given the perils of direct confrontation with the US, the most likely recourse for Iran may be to mobilise its proxy militias to attack American assets in Iraq.
Klaus W. Larres, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
President Trump’s Iran policy took a dramatic turn when the US killed Iran’s top military commander in a drone strike. To avoid war, one foreign policy scholar says Trump has to reverse his stance.
In the Trump era, one crisis – even one as grave as impeachment – is simply replaced by another. In more tranquil times such crises may spell the end of a presidency – but not so in the age of Trump.
Professor in U.S. Politics and U.S. Foreign Relations at the United States Studies Centre and in the Discipline of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney