A Week in Politics #1
Nicolás Maduro (Photo: BBC) This piece marks the first instalment of what I intend to be a regular weekly reflection on the news — a look at what has happened, why it matters, and where it might lead. The US Capture of Nicolás Maduro: When Law Is Treated as Optional The reported capture of Nicolás Maduro by the United States is an event that should chill anyone who takes international law seriously. Let me be clear from the outset: I have little sympathy for Maduro himself. His government has presided over repression, economic ruin, and the hollowing out of Venezuela’s democratic institutions. That record is real, and it matters. But how we respond to tyrants also matters.The question is not simply what happens, but how it happens. Tomorrow’s crises are born from today’s solutions. International law is not a decorative extra, something to be invoked when convenient and ignored when not. It exists precisely to constrain the arbitrary use of power by states - especially powerful ones. If...
