Executive Branch

Just Security’s expert authors provide analysis of the U.S. executive branch related to national security, rights, and the rule of law. Analysis and informational resources focus on the executive branch’s powers and their limits, and the actions of the president, administrative agencies, and federal officials.

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4,757 Articles
U.S. and Iran flags are projected on chess kings on a chess board. The projection continues to the background behind the chess pieces, leaving shadows of the chess pieces.

Shifting Contours, But the Same Solution: Swiftly Returning to the Iran Nuclear Deal

While the landscape between Iran and the United States has changed dramatically over the last few months, the solution to Iran’s growing nuclear stockpile and increasing tensions…
Antony Blinken rests his chin in his hand during his confirmation hearing to be Secretary of State before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 19, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Blinken Sails Through Queries on Iran, China, Russia, NATO, and More in Secretary of State Confirmation Hearing

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Republicans and Democrats alike were mostly welcoming as they probed his approach to the world's trouble spots.
A Honduran family walks back to Piedras Negras, Coahuila state, Mexico at the international bridge, after being rejected by US authorities in their attempt to enter Eagle Pass, Texas on February 6, 2019. The path ahead of the family is completely obscured by a thick grey haze.

Salvaging US Refugee Law in 2021: The Case for Tackling the Problem of Discretionary Asylum

Our statutes improperly give U.S. government officials broad discretion to deny asylum even to those who are determined by the government to face persecution in their home countries.
President Biden speaks into a microphone in front of an American flag.

On Biden’s Planned Summit: Humility, Not Hubris, Can Save Democracy

The voices of those who have suffered most from democracy’s ills are crucial to understanding – and addressing -- the impact of backsliding laws, policies, and institutions…
People walk past missiles manufactured by Lockheed Martin displayed during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA)Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, DC, October 13, 2014.

Toward A More Responsible US Arms Trade Policy: Recommendations for the Biden-Harris Administration

Biden pledged a foreign policy that would restore U.S. moral leadership. Ending U.S. complicity in human rights abuses, civilian harm, and humanitarian crises through the structural…
U.S. Army (retired) General Lloyd Austin speaks after being formally nominated to be Secretary of the Department of Defense by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden at the Queen Theatre on December 09, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Behind him is a banner with the seal of the President-Elect.

What Should Be Addressed in Austin’s Confirmation Hearing for Defense Secretary?

Some of the top defense experts and thinkers offer their thoughts on what issues they’d like to see addressed and what questions they’d like to see asked at retired Gen. Lloyd…
Pro-democracy protesters hold up a sign showing a meme of U.S. President Elect Joe Biden and "No 112" on them during a rally at the Nonthaburi Police Station on December 08, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand.

US Human Rights Policy: How to Really Build Back Better

The Biden administration must create a system in which human rights and democracy policymaking is embedded and integrated in its decision-making machinery.
Demonstrators in Washington, DC, on June 4, 2020, raise signs as they gather at The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial to protest the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis. One sign reads, “Black Lives Matter,” and another sign reads, “I am no longer accepting the things I can not change. I am changing the things I can not accept.”

MLK Believed “No Justice, No Peace”

Arguments that the protests over the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless others betray King’s legacy are not only in bad faith, but plainly wrong.

Ousted Autocratic Presidents and Their Backers in the Legislative Branch

Machinations of hardliners from Sri Lanka to Hungary, Colombia and more signal the trouble Trump and his supporters could make for the Biden administration.

What Should Congress Focus on for the DNI Confirmation Hearing?

The key policy and topic areas that should be covered in Friday's confirmation hearing for Avril Haines, Biden's nominee to be director of national intelligence.

Lessons from Benghazi: Accountability for the U.S. Capitol Attack

Just like after that attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, there must be accountability for the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Accountability for the failure of law enforcement…
US Vice President Joe Biden holds a file folder and talks with US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, August 4, 2015.

How Samantha Power Can Restore USAID’s Crucial Role in US Foreign Policy

The nomination signals that international cooperation is back in the toolbox for America's pursuit of an equitable, prosperous, and just world.
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