WORLD ROUNDUPA Rogue Nation on the High Seas | How Israel Is Losing America | What Would a China Chip Blockade Cost?, and more

Murder by Drone: The Legal and Moral Stakes of the Caribbean Strikes  (Annie Shiel, John Ramming Chappell, Priyanka Motaparthy, Wells Dixon and Daphne Eviatar, Just Security)
A State intentionally killing a person outside of armed conflict and without due process is an extrajudicial killing under international law. Extrajudicial killing is a form of murder. At stake in the president’s decision to summarily execute alleged cartel members is whether he can murder people he labels criminals or “terrorists” with impunity. Under the administration’s apparent reasoning, there seems to be nothing preventing murders of other alleged criminals – drug traffickers or otherwise – in the United States. If allowed to go unchecked, the incident sets an extraordinary and dangerous precedent, encouraging additional unlawful executions by the United States and other leaders in the region and globally.

A Rogue Nation on the High Seas  (Tom Nichols, The Atlantic)
Trump is treating the military like his personal mercenaries.
Donald Trump is being cagey about how many people he’s ordered the U.S. Navy to kill on the high seas. The official toll from American military strikes on two boats suspected of running drugs from Venezuela is now 14, but a few days ago, Trump teased the possibility that a third boat had been “knocked off,” presumably on his orders.
The Trump administration’s justification for these strikes, such as it is, seems to be that any shipment of drugs connected to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a direct threat to the United States. These “narco-terrorists” may therefore be destroyed on sight, and without the fuss of asking permission from the U.S. Congress. This argument reflects the president’s childlike but dangerous understanding of his role as commander in chief. The United States, once the leader of a global system of security and economic cooperation, is now acting like a rogue state on the high seas.
The White House position is wrong on many levels. I taught the rules and theories that govern the use of force to military officers at the Naval War College for many years, and every summer for two decades to civilians at Harvard; I always reminded students that international law and traditions require states to show that they are acting in some form of self-defense, either in response to an attack or to forestall more violence. Moreover, American law does not permit the president to designate people as terrorists and then declare open season on them in defiance of international agreements and without any involvement from Congress. Perhaps Trump’s people are watching too many Tom Clancy movies, but he cannot legally send the Navy out onto the world’s oceans as though they are seagoing sheriffs with satchels full of death warrants.
No one in the White House seems to care very much about the rules that govern killing people, at home or abroad, but these rules actually exist.

How Israel Is Losing America  (Economist)
Public opinion is souring even in Israel’s strongest ally. Israelis should worry.

What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Europe’s Hard Right  (Economist)
He imagines a continental revolt against Islam and elites.

What Would a China Chip Blockade Cost?  (Martin Chorzempa, Foreign Policy)
Mutual dependence is a rare source of stability in U.S.-China relations.

Israel Is Orchestrating an Economic Collapse in the West Bank  (Jessica Buxbaum,Foreign Policy)
Job losses are only one factor in the equation driving its financial decline.

Preparing for the End of the Islamic Republic of Iran  (Matt Cookson, National Interest)
The United States can’t do much to ensure that democracy will emerge after the potential end of Iran’s theocracy.