<span class="vcard">Tess Bridgeman</span>

Tess Bridgeman

Co-Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Tess Bridgeman (BlueskyLinkedIn) is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Just Security. She served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President, Associate Counsel to the President, and Deputy Legal Adviser to the National Security Council (NSC) during the Obama administration. She also served at the State Department in the Office of the Legal Adviser as Special Assistant to the Legal Adviser and, prior to that role, as an Attorney Adviser in the Office of Political-Military Affairs.

Bridgeman is a Senior Fellow and Visiting Scholar at NYU Law School’s Reiss Center on Law and Security, where she created the War Powers Resolution Reporting Project. She is an affiliate at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), lectures at Berkeley Law, is a former chair of the American Society of International Law (ASIL)’s Strategic Initiatives Committee, and currently serves on ASIL’s Executive Council. Previously in her career, Bridgeman has worked at the World Bank Inspection Panel, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and clerked for Judge Thomas L. Ambro of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Bridgeman has a D.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar; a JD from NYU Law School, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, which she attended as a Root-Tilden-Kern and Institute for International Law and Justice Scholar; and a BA from Stanford University.

Articles by this author:

In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency on May 4, 2026, the Iran-flagged tugboat Basim sails near a ship anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran. Iran's Revolutionary Guards on May 4 denied that any commercial ships had crossed the Strait of Hormuz, after the US military earlier said two US-flagged merchant vessels had transited through the vital waterway. (Photo by Amirhossein KHORGOOEI / ISNA / AFP via Getty Images) /
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listens as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on June 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Three cone shaped flags on poles, Israel, Iran, United States, isolated on a transparent background (via Getty Images).
IMAGES (left to right): People search through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air raids in the southern Gaza Strip on November 7, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza (Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images); A fireball erupts during Israeli bombardment of Gaza City on October 9, 2023 (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images); The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the UN, holds public hearings on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by South Africa in the case South Africa v. Israel on 11 and 12 January 2024, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the Court (Photo by the International Court of Justice).
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth arrives to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on June 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Flags of USA and Iran
Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) sails alongside Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG 121) and Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship
A smartphone displays a post by U.S. President Donald Trump on the Truth Social platform showing a composite image featuring Trump alongside U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, with the U.S. flag and a sign reading Greenland, U.S. Territory Est. 2026, while a map of Greenland is visible in the background, on January 20, 2026 (Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)
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