Edmarverson A. Santos

Foreign policy is the process through which states define external objectives and pursue them through diplomacy, economic statecraft, military power, and other instruments. This article explains how foreign policy is made, what shapes it, how national interests are defined, and how international law constrains state action.

Bashar al-Assad’s death sentence raises complex questions of criminal responsibility, legality, trial in absentia, capital punishment, head-of-state immunity, extradition from Russia, and international jurisdiction. This article examines what the Syrian judgment establishes, what remains legally uncertain, and how international law may shape future accountability.

The law of the sea regulates how states use, control, and share the oceans. This article explains UNCLOS, maritime zones, navigation rights, the exclusive economic zone, continental shelf, high seas, resource rights, and the settlement of maritime disputes.