The Chicago Council for Global Affairs

Is there any prospect for accountability when major powers ignore international law? Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and legal expert Louise Arbour answers.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s deployment of religious rhetoric in the Iran war has come under increased scrutiny. What happens when the line between political conflict and religious warfare blurs?

“This moment calls for us to reimagine the possibilities,” Dr. Olufunmilayo I. Olopade tells the Council.

Unless Trump can devise a secure—and cost-neutral—plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the United States will lose even more global goodwill.

The US blockade of Iran's coastline raises concerns about a potential confrontation with China and others who have managed to get ships through the Strait of Hormuz, Council President and CEO Leslie Vinjamuri tells Bloomberg. "This is very unchartered territory."

"We are watching another unwelcome phenomenon return to the global stage: the world war," Council Senior Nonresident Fellow Paul Poast argues in the New York Times.

"A two-week ceasefire is going to be very unstable," Council Lester Crown Senior Nonresident Fellow Rachel Bronson says. "You need to have some stability for tankers to move in and out, so anything that threatens that will continue this crisis and keep energy prices high."