en English

Politics

Aug 12, 2026 Shlomo Ben-Ami

Born amid the euphoria of the West’s Cold War victory, the International Criminal Court embodied the aspiration that international law could transcend politics. But the ICC always represented victors’ justice, and it was never equipped to operate in a world shaped by Machtpolitik.

TEL AVIV—International criminal tribunals once focused on bringing defeated leaders, such as Serbia’s Slobodan Milošević and Liberia’s Charles Taylor, to justice. But the International Criminal Court has gone further, issuing arrest warrants for incumbent leaders—notably, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While there is a certain boldness in such actions, they fail to account for political reality. In fact, the ICC’s new, more forceful posture may well have incited its downfall.