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.
4,605 Articles

Wishing Away Climate Change as a Threat to National Security
This week, President Donald Trump released an “America First” National Security Strategy (NSS), a document that is supposed to represent “a dramatic rethinking of American…

By Weakening Arms Export Controls, Trump’s National Security Strategy Will Create National and Global Insecurity
Saudi Special Forces attend a military show January 15, 2005 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (Abid Katib/Getty Images) The Trump Administration’s newly launched National Security Strategy…

Three Questions on the WannaCry Attribution to North Korea
President Donald Trump speaks alongside Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a cabinet meeting at the White House on November 20, 2017, at which Trump officially designated…

Despite Years of Recommendations, Government Still Rewards Bad Policies for Body Cameras
In the last several years, we have seen a boom in the use of police body cameras. Departments across the country have adopted the cameras, and most of the nation’s largest cities…

Why it’s Far Worse for Trump to Fire Rosenstein than to Fire Mueller
All eyes are on what Donald Trump will do, as the oracles on Twitter and the Hill have predicted that the president may fire Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller around the holidays.…

The Supreme Court Should Heed Friendly Advice on Microsoft Ireland
President Trump meets with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in the State Dining Room of the White House June 19, 2017 in Washington, DC.…

Confronting Trump: We Can’t Be Outraged About Everything, All of the Time
President Trump signs executive Orders in the Oval Office of the White House, February 3, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Aude Guerrucci – Pool/Getty Images) I reacted…

U.S. “Confronting” Iran inside Syria: Spoiling for an Unlawful Fight?
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani meet during the BRICS/SCO Summits – Russia 2015 on July 09, 2015 in Ufa, Russia. (Photo by Alexey Filippov/Host…

Collusion Doesn’t Have to be Criminal to be an Ongoing Threat
During the hearing with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday, some members of the House Judiciary Committee did not try to conceal their attempt to discredit and…

Want to Stop Homegrown Attacks? Start With Locally-Driven Violence Prevention
In her Congressional testimony last month, Elaine C. Duke, the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, put one last nail in the coffin of a key Obama administration effort to fight…

No Winners: How the Int’l Criminal Court Should Avoid Confronting the United States
ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda presents at the Fifth Annual Blouin Creative Leadership Summit in New York in 2011. (Credit: Thos Robinson/Getty Images for The Louise Blouin Foundation)…

The Truth About Rendition and Torture: An Inquiry in North Carolina
A Casa 235 turboprop plane with registration number N168D at Ruzyne Airport April 8, 2005 in Prague, Czech Republic. According to airport flight records the plane was registered…