THE AMERICAN PEACE advocate Norman Cousins once said, "Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live." The quote has often been linked to Ariel Dorfman's profoundly moving play, Death and the Maiden. Therein, a middle-class Chilean woman who is a trauma survivor, having been subjected to torture and other unspeakable torments, confronts the man who had terrorized her years earlier during her country's brutal dictatorship.
For decades, I have documented torture and war crimes, first as a journalist for Vanity Fair and now as executive director of the Reckoning Project (TRP), an organization that gathers evidence of the systematic horrors Ukrainians have endured since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. When survivors tell me how they managed to bear it all, a common description I have heard is that they had to kill something deep in their psyches.
How can these survivors ever hope to heal? One way which is the main mission of TRP is to ensure that some of those who have committed war crimes are held accountable in court. If authoritarian leaders remain in power-as in Argentina in the 1970s and '80s and in Russia today accountability is impossible. The question then becomes how to create a legal framework so these victims and crimes don't go unnoticed.
One method gaining traction in this regard utilizes a principle known as universal jurisdiction, which allows laws to be applied to serious crimes in territories outside conflict zones. In many ways, this is justice without borders.
Consider the ongoing war in Syria. Two years ago, in Koblenz, a nondescript town on the Rhine, a verdict was handed down by a German court in the world's first criminal case involving state-sponsored torture in Syria.
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SETTING THE STAGE
Before they conquered Hollywood, George Segal, Peter Falk, Roy Scheider, and Wayne Rogers were some of the finest-though perhaps not the finest-stage actors in New York. WAYNE LAWSON, who knew them when, revisits a golden era that revolutionized American theater
HOPE AND CHANGE?
As the threat of another Trump presidency looms, AMERICA TURNS ITS EYES TO THE OBAMAS, who remain two of the most important politicians in the world-whether they like it or not
The Natural
Comedy, singing, scandal, attempted murder: Meghann Fahy, the breakout star of The White Lotus and now The Perfect Couple, can do it all
FULL-COURT PRESS
Microsoft made him one of the richest men alive. Now STEVE BALLMER is chasing one of the few prizes money (alone) can't buy: an NBA championship for his team, the Los Angeles Clippers, whose staggeringly expensive state-of-the-art arena opens this summer
THE TWISTED LOVE STORY OF JOSE AND LADDY BETTY
A 95-year-old diamond heiress and her much younger genderfluid spouse became social media stars. Was theirs a feelgood romance for the agesor something far darker?
CONSIDER
NO ONE KNOWS CANDIDATE ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.'S PROBLEMATIC HISTORY BETTER THAN HIS FAMILY. JOE HAGAN TALKS TO THAT RELUCTANT INNER CIRCLE ABOUT KENNEDY'S PAST AND THE STAKES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE
Paris When It Sizzled
IN 1973, FIVE AMERICAN DESIGNERS AND 36 MODELS DESCENDED ON THE CITY OF LIGHT FOR WHAT WOULD BECOME AN ERA-DEFINING FASHION SHOW-AND WITH THEM WAS PHOTOGRAPHER BILL CUNNINGHAM. HERE, AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT HIS TREASURE TROVE OF LARGELY UNSEEN PHOTOS, PUBLISHED TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME
JENNA ORTEGA'S YEAR OF WONDER
THE BREAKOUT STAR OF WEDNESDAY SETTLES INTO FAME AND WITH A BEETLEJUICE SEQUEL ON THE HORIZON GETS READY FOR MORE OF IT
Playing It STRAIGHT
Dynamic young stars have broken out in queer roles. Should their own sexuality matter?
Another COUNTRY
Searching for James Baldwin in the South of France
