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11 results

  • 7 - The Reagan and Bush Administrations – Abraham D. Sofaer (1985–1990)

  • Michael P. Scharf, Paul R. Williams, American University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    11 January 2010, pp 65-86

  • Summary

    MY FIVE YEARS AS LEGAL ADVISER TO THE U.S. DEPARTment of State fell within two Administrations: that of Ronald Reagan, under Secretary of State George P. Shultz (1985–1988) and that of George H. W. Bush, under Secretary of State James Baker (1989–1990). When my service began, the Cold War was still intense, and fundamentalist terror had begun in earnest. Iran had released U.S. hostages, but its allies in Lebanon had seized others, and its conflict with Iraq destabilized conditions in the Persian Gulf. Dealing with these and other challenges was made more complex, moreover, because, in his second term, President Reagan faced a Democratic Congress that resisted many of his policies.

    The highlights of my activities can be divided into four general areas: first, the settlement or adjudication of ad hoc international problems and controversies; second, issues concerning the then-critical and conclusive confrontation with the Soviet Union; third, participating in the shifting and insufficient U.S. response to terrorism, in particular the fundamentalist terrorism with which the world is now painfully familiar; and fourth, growing out of these efforts, the development and articulation of the U.S. position on the use of force under the UN Charter.

    Withdrawal from the ICJ's Compulsory Jurisdiction

    My first, and one of my most controversial decisions, was to recommend that the President terminate the U.S. submission to the mandatory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

  • Agora: The U.S. Decision not to Ratify Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions on the Protection of War Victims (Cont’d)

  • Abraham D. Sofaer
  • Journal:
    American Journal of International Law / Volume 82 / Issue 4 / October 1988
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    27 February 2017, pp. 784-787
    Print publication:
    October 1988

  • The October 1987 issue of the Journal contains an article written by Hans-Peter Gasser, the Legal Adviser to the Directorate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on the U.S. decision not to ratify Protocol I (on international armed conflicts) to the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the Protection of War Victims. Unfortunately, the Journal did not include any response by the administration, but only the President’s necessarily brief letter of transmittal to the Senate of January 18, 1987, recommending advice and consent to ratification of Protocol II (on noninternational conflicts). The President’s letter of transmittal was not intended to be an exhaustive statement of the U.S. objections to Protocol I, nor does it purport to be such.