[Prefatory Note: With some embarrassment, and a bit of pride, I publish Margaret Crane’s interview in two sessions. I was intrigued by her newsletter on ageing, and thought that being asked about what it means to be this old I would learn something about my current state of mind and of being-in-the-world. My embarrassment stems from my realization that this is something in the order of what prompted Norman Mailer to title his 1959 book, Advertisements for Myself. I suppose this is a way of hiding self-consciousness by being ‘up front’ about it.]
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He Calls Himself a Citizen Pilgrim. I Call Him a Moral and Intellectual Hero.
Nonagenarian Richard Falk’s Long, Fruitful Post-Retirement
Jan 04, 2025
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At 94, Richard Falk is busier than at any other point in his life.
If you’re already familiar with Falk’s singular achievements, you’ll recognize the towering figure you know and admire—or profoundly disagree with. No matter which way you lean on Falk and the causes he has championed over the years, the following overview of his life, based on two interviews I conducted with him this past December, may offer new insights, along with a sense of what’s possible in very old age.
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Having taught international law and international relations at Princeton for four decades, Falk became an activist during the Vietnam War period, and he hasn’t stopped fighting for human rights, social justice, and the health of the planet since then.
Our paths crossed briefly during the early 1990s. I was an environmental activist myself, driven by outrage at the harm our species was inflicting on the systems that sustain life on Earth. Looking back at my younger self, I realize that I was long on passion and short on knowledge. At the behest of a fellow activist, I read a few articles by Falk, Murray Bookchin, and other prominent ecology-minded thinkers. They helped me understand what was at stake and embrace a more holistic view of the world: the ways in which war, poverty, the ecological crisis, capitalism, and geopolitics were interconnected.
I was stunned by Falk’s moral and intellectual force and humbled by his principled analysis of world affairs. And I still am.
As a prominent academic at an elite institution who dared to voice a radical critique of the West, and the U.S. in particular, he was as courageous as they come. His critique started with the Vietnam War and culminated in his opposition to Zionism and support for Palestinian rights. “I received plenty of pushback from Princeton alumni,” he told me. They, along with many in the human rights establishment, charged him—a secular Jew from New York City—with antisemitism. Their denunciation only grew sharper after he retired from Princeton in 2001, especially once he became the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine, a position he held from 2008 to 2014.
He also made me aware of reports issued this December by two major human rights organizations—Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Both have called Israel’s military campaign in Gaza genocide. That view is no longer the exclusive province of American college students across the nation’s campuses. Now, it’s being promulgated by the very establishment that viewed Falk as an outlier and possibly an extremist a short time ago. After all, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the international courts were originally conceived to denounce the human rights practices of the enemies of the West—not the West itself—so it’s significant that Israel’s actions have prompted them to such strong criticism of Israeli policy and, by implication, Western arms shipments.
Back to the Future
From Gandhi to Thoreau, and from Martin Luther King, Jr. to John Lewis and Wangari Maathai (the late Kenyan environmental activist and recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize), men and women of principle are often vilified by those whose interests are tied up with the established order. As I see it, one thing these men and women have in common is a kind of prescience—an ability to see the world as it could and should be, before the basis for such a world has become visible to sufficient numbers of people to effect change in the present.
Falk is one of those utopian thinkers.
In 1971, he authored his first book: This Endangered Planet: Prospects and Proposals for Human Survival, which was selected by the magazine Foreign Affairs as one of the six most influential books published in the 20th century on global issues. The environmental crisis was barely on anyone’s radar, if memory serves, much less climate change. Pure prescience.
Falk has also formulated a critique of the nation-state, one that isn’t “realistic” but, once again, peers into a future that isn’t discernible to the pragmatically minded, which is most of us.
In a 2018 interview with Patrick Lawrence published in The Nation, he contrasted the relative weakness of the UN with the kind of globalism he believes is urgently needed.
If the human species is to thrive in the future, he told Lawrence, “you need mechanisms for protecting the global interest and the human interest, as distinct from the national interest”—especially in light of climate change, nuclear weapons, and other global threats.
He continues, “We’ve relied on the notion that leading states are surrogates for the promotion of the global public good, but that clearly doesn’t work when either geopolitical security interests are at stake, as they are with nuclear weapons, or large economic interests are at stake, as is the case with climate change.” I’d like to add AI as yet another threat that needs to be defanged and opposed outright, difficult and challenging as that may be. In adding this dreaded technology to Falk’s list of global threats, I hereby join the ranks of utopian thinkers as a citizen who still believes that a better world is possible.
Top Achievements
My purpose here is not to replicate Falk’s CV, and anyway, that would be impossible and, in a way, purposeless. If you’re interested in learning more about his long history of achievement, take a look at the video taken when he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 2023.
Here are just a few. He has written 75 books. He has garnered umpteen honorary degrees, along with a doctorate from Harvard and a law degree from Yale. And he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times.
During our first interview, he mentioned these in passing, and only when I pressed him for examples. He was much prouder of the pilgrimages he made to North Vietnam in 1968 and to Iran (with former US attorney general Ramsey Clark) shortly after the ouster of the shah. The point was to start a process of dialogue and unofficial diplomacy, and to show that alternatives to war, and war-mongering, were possible.
As we delved into his past, he surprised me by saying that his proudest moment ever was the opportunity to try out for the New York Giants at age 17. (He would have preferred the Dodgers, his favorite baseball team.) Falk was quite the athlete, obviously. He continued to engage in sports, including tennis and squash, even through his 80s.
The Poem
On his 94th birthday, Falk posted a poem on his blog, Global Justice in the 21st Century. I’ve been one of his subscribers for several years, but (she said shamefaced) I don’t always read it. However, I couldn’t resist reading his birthday poem.
Here are a few lines from the first stanza:
For these last years I felt
It was strange to be still alive
When so many around me were dead.
Stranger to receive and give love
While the planet burns
And untamed demons prowl.
Here are a few from stanza II:
Yet despite the carnage
Roses bloom guarded by thorns
Gardenias retain their addictive aroma…
…The joys of loving and being loved never age. (Italics mine.)
And here’s stanza IV in its entirety:
When slaves break their chains
And patriots of the earth become
Warriors gardeners poets engaging
In a fight worth winning for the sake
Of those we love and learn from
So long as the trusted soul breathes its light
While the body is busy with the work of dying
Life remains a precious gift of god.
In tears and fully aware that he might not remember me, I decided to write to him and request an interview. And, mirabile dictu, he said yes.
Old Age
When we spoke, he described the tension he experiences between “personal contentment and public gloom.” While not exactly content, I’ve decided to borrow that formulation as I, along with many people I know, grapple with how to live our lives while finding the best ways to deal with the demons who now dominate our institutions, as well as some of those who voted for them (the ones who are prone to violence).
He mentioned another source of tension, implied in his poem: the relatively rapid ageing of the body vs. the much slower ageing of the spirit. That may be why so many older adults say they feel young. Our spirits are indeed much younger than our hearing loss and arthritic joints may indicate.
Falk is also a winner of the genetic lottery, what with his robust health, athletic prowess, and stunning intelligence. While most of us may never be able to match these qualities or receive these gifts of god, we can find hope and inspiration in his story.
The Inglorious Present
Falk said he could never have imagined that Netanyahu’s speech before the US Congress would receive 59 standing ovations. Nor could he have imagined the second coming of Trump. Trump and Musk represent “exploitative capitalism, leading to a personalist politics of dictatorship,” he said. With the help of social media, “they have also stoked a politics of resentment” among a large swath of an alienated electorate.
It disturbs him to ponder our country’s low tolerance for self-scrutiny and claims of American innocence and exceptionalism.
Not that Biden gets a free pass. Falk finds the outgoing president’s remarks about America’s supposed greatness banal and unfounded.
His Life Goes on in Endless Song
Not literally, of course, but gloriously.
Mainly, Falk enjoys working. Work—perhaps better framed as purposeful activity—has helped him live better and longer, he believes.
His younger friends and former students have kept him involved in the kinds of projects he has always favored. He’s president of The Gaza Tribunal—“a people’s tribunal to document what has been happening for more than 15 months and galvanize global efforts to stop the genocide.”
He’s also one of three conveners of Saving Humanity and Planet Earth. (Did I mention that he’s a big-picture, utopian thinker?)
And he co-edited a book, just published, titled Genocide in Gaza: Voices of Global Conscience, which includes essays by a distinguished group of contributors.
How is it possible for a 94-year-old to take on so many projects? How can he claim to be busier than at any other time in his life? And how has he managed to avoid the physical and mental setbacks that plague so many people 10, 20, and sometimes even 30 years younger than he is? There’s something mysterious at work here, and one day, biologists will be able to unveil at least some of its underlying aspects.
In the meantime, I’m delighted to have connected with him, back in the early 1990s and this past December. Thanks to his example, I’ll never downplay this phase of my life again.
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Global Justice in the 21st Century 
On Not Remembering Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III
28 May[Prefatory Note: More than usual, I need to explain this post of an article by Vimal Patel published a few days ago in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Given the celebrity surrounding Robert Mueller since he was appointed Special Counsel to investigate charges of criminal wrongdoings associated with the 2016 election that brought us and the world, Donald Trump, the most anomalous presidency in all of American history, yet also part of a global trend toward ‘illiberal democracies,’ which may be a polite was of describing ‘democracies’ with a soft spot for fascism. In any event, Mueller’s thesis was devoted to litigation in the World Court (more formally known as the International Court of Justice) at the Hague, initiated by Ethiopia and Liberia, to challenge the extension of apartheid to the South West Africa mandate, now Namibia. I worked at The Hague on the second phase of the case as a member of the Ethiopia/Liberia team throughout the year 1964-65, while on leave from Princeton. I will write about the case in a few days. Mueller’s paper was devoted to the first phase, the much contested question as to whether the ICJ should accept jurisdiction.
Mr. Patel’s article is concerned with what struck him and others as strange, that someone with conservative politics should choose to work with someone on the left, especially given the polarizing effects of the Vietnam debate raging on and off campus. I have lightly edited the published text for clarity.]
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“Robert Mueller’s Undergraduate Thesis Adviser Has a Great Memory. But He Doesn’t Remember Mueller”
By Vimal Patel, MAY 24, 2018
Robert S. Mueller III, special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice, wrote an undergraduate thesis at Princeton U. on “Acceptance of Jurisdiction in the South West Africa Cases.”
Before Robert Mueller became a war hero, headed the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and led the inquiry into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election, he had another feat to accomplish.
The year was 1966, and he had his senior thesis to complete at Princeton University. The senior thesis is a big deal, and has been described as the defining Princeton academic experience for undergraduate seniors.
Mueller’s 117-page thesis was titled “Acceptance of Jurisdiction in the South West Africa Cases.” It dealt with a court case at The Hague about the extension of apartheid to a South African territory, Namibia.
In the acknowledgments section, Mueller acknowledged just one person, Richard A. Falk, “for his stimulating guidance in the preparation of this Thesis.”
The Chronicle tracked down Falk, who is 87, in Turkey, where he has a home along the coast. He also lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he is a research fellow in the University of California’s Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies.
“He must have been fairly low profile.”
Falk has a razor-sharp memory, and 53 years later, can recall details of the case he argued at The Hague, like the final vote count and the name of the judge who cast the tie-breaking vote. But he has no memory of Mueller.
However, after The Chronicle alerted him about his star student, he reread Mueller’s thesis. Falk spoke to us about Princeton in the 1960s, and what he thinks about the quality of the thesis after all these years. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you tell me how you were involved with the case Mueller wrote his thesis on?
A.It was a very important case that had complicated political ramifications. It ended up to the surprise of almost everyone of being decided in favor of South Africa. I was involved with the litigation team of the governments that brought charges. The judges were split, 7 to 7, and the president of the International Court of Justice, an Australian and colonialist, Sir Percy Spender, had a second vote to break the tie, and cast it in favor of apartheid, South Africa’s position. The whole case involved whether South Africa was living up to its mandatory duties as set forth by the international community. The main question was whether extending apartheid to Namibia, then South-West Africa, was consistent with the mandate.
So a key question was whether apartheid would be allowed in Namibia?
A. Yes, whether South Africa was living up to its obligations [to govern Namibia] by extending apartheid to Namibia. And the South African argument was “It’s the best solution. After all, it’s what we do for our own people.” It was at the height of apartheid. And it made the international community very angry. The court’s decision actually accelerated Namibia’s process of independence, because people were so angry at the decision. It also led to the restructuring of the personnel of the court. It was an extremely controversial decision. It was a big breakthrough for the anti-apartheid campaign. That’s why the jurisdictional issue was politically interesting. That’s what Robert Mueller was obviously preoccupied with at the time. When I first got your message, it didn’t even occur to me that you were referring to this Robert Mueller, who has become a celebrity.
You don’t have any memory of Robert Mueller?
A: Unfortunately, no. None. And I remember many of my senior-thesis students. I taught at Princeton for 40 years. You do have a quite close relationship with your senior-thesis students. It’s the big thing your last year at Princeton. You can probably text me the names of 10 others, and I would remember at least eight of them.
That’s fascinating to me because you have an impressive ability to recall half-century-old details.
A: I could talk about the details of the case for hours. I spent a year working on it.
Robert Mueller does strike me as sort of an unmemorable and unflashy person.
He must have been fairly low profile. I had some very right-wing students, like, for instance, Richard Perle, who became one of the lead intellectuals of the neoconservative movement. I remember him extremely well. He was there around the same period as Mueller.
The chair of the department of politics at Princeton was surprised that Mueller would thank you in his thesis, calling it an “odd pairing.” Mueller ended up serving in Vietnam. You questioned the legality of the war. Mueller would become a Republican. You were a controversial leftist. But yet there he was, working with you.
A: It’s an irony I suppose. I’m glad you brought this to my attention. I would have never known about my forgotten connection to this currently prominent personality who may have the fate of the nation in his hands.
What do you remember about Richard Perle?
A: I remember lots of things some of which I am reluctant to discuss. Despite the political gap between our views, we were quite friendly. The seminars were small at the time, so you knew many of the graduate students quite well. He’s one of the few people who eventually left Princeton as a graduate student, because the department was too liberal for him. There are many arguments about what goes wrong at Princeton, but very few have ever claimed that it was too liberal as an institution.
It was more on the conservative side, as far as universities go, during this time?
Definitely. It prided itself on being conservative. And its alumni were extremely conservative. I had a lot of trouble over the years with the alumni, especially the older alumni. Princeton changed a lot in my 40 years there, and being a visible progressive faculty member I was associated with some of the changes, like bringing women into the university. And some of the more progressive political initiatives that occurred during the Vietnam period particularly. I favored most of these changes, but played very little role in bringing them about.
So having someone like Robert Mueller, who would end up serving in Vietnam and becoming a Republican, wouldn’t be out of character at Princeton in the 1960s?
Not at all. He would be a mainstream Princeton student — in the early 1960s, at least. Princeton changed during the 1960s. and he’s just about at that point where it did become briefly — I wouldn’t say radicalized — but I would say the student body became quite progressive. That’s what alarmed and angered many of the alumni at the time, particularly older alumni who wanted Princeton to remain as they had experienced it.
Would it be fair to say you were more of an anomaly than Robert Mueller at the Princeton of the sixties?
A: Oh, much more. Mueller would not be seen as an anomaly at all in that Princeton atmosphere. It was a year when there was growing tension among students about the Vietnam War. The draft was present, but there were also many pro-war students. Some students began to express the view, “Why should we risk our lives for a war that had no meaning for us?” Because I don’t remember Mueller at all, I don’t know if he expressed any views about this back then. But it was a key moment in the evolution of the political atmosphere at Princeton. It must have affected him deeply, because there was growing tension by 1966 in the university community, and since I was probably the most visible critic of the Vietnam War among the faculty he would have been well aware of this fact.
How does it feel knowing that one of the most talked about people in the United States thought so highly of you and acknowledged you in his senior thesis?
Of course, it is pleasant, and far better than the reverse. On one level, it’s amusing. I do wish my memory extended to the experience of knowing and working with him at that time. It’s one of those experiences that I didn’t appreciate at the time but later acquires a special significance.
Robert Mueller throughout his career seems to have earned a lot of bipartisan support. Democrats and Republicans found him to be someone they could work with. And it’s interesting to me that his productive relationship with you more than half a century ago — someone with presumably wildly different views — alludes to the kind of person he would become.
A: I think that’s a good insight. From what little I know about him as a public personality, he is somebody that comes across as careful and impresses people with his professionalism. He doesn’t flaunt his ideological views the way someone like Richard Perle would have, or some of the well-known people on the right, orthe left for that matter.
Any general thoughts on his thesis?
A: I was extremely impressed with the maturity and sophistication of the analysis, which was quite unusual for someone who had not yet attended law school. Even though, from my perspective, it sided too strongly with the conservative interpretation of these complex legal issues, he did so in a judicious way and was very fair in his assessment of opposing views. These are exactly the kind of qualities you would look for in someone given this nationally sensitive role of looking into potential wrongdoing by the president of the United States.
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Vimal Patel covers graduate education. Follow him on Twitter @vimalpatel232,or write to him at vimal.patel@chronicle.com.
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Tags: Princeton Senior Thesis, Princeton University, Richard Falk Advisor, RobertS. Mueller, World Court