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
Congress Steps Up Accountability for Drones Strikes and Other Military Operations
On the same day that The New York Times Magazine published a disturbing account of the monumental gap between the number of acknowledged civilian casualties and the number of casualties…
Episode 46 of the National Security Law Podcast: The $15 Million Dollar Man
In this week’s episode, your devoted hosts dig into a bonanza of national security law odds-and-ends. First up is an en banc decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance…
Russian Money and Trump’s Legal Defense
Piece by piece, we continue to learn about Russia’s assault on the 2016 election: cyberattacks on voting systems in 39 states; troll farms that pushed divisive political messages…
The Internationalists Mini-Forum: Wars of Self-Defense, An Exception that Swallows the Rule
(This piece is the latest of several on Just Security examining The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World, written by Just Security editorial board…
Yemen Strike Raises Questions About Whether the US Follows Its Own Drone Rules
While we were visiting Yemen this month, the United States conducted a drone strike against alleged al-Qaeda members in Mareb Governorate, reportedly killing two suspects while…
How the Trump Administration Deals With Detainees Can Provide Insight Into its Counterterrorism Priorities
What is the US going to do with the “enemy combatants” it picks up during counterterrorism operations? How will we strike the difficult balance between protecting national…
Sessions’ Recusal, the Clinton Foundation, and Uranium One
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday, he will face questioning on the Uranium One deal. As Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s…
Implications of Trump’s New Drone Policy for Countries Assisting the U.S.
At the end of October, the New York Times reported two government officials as saying that the Trump administration had adopted its anticipated new approach to the deployment of…
Who in Their Right Mind Would Believe Putin?
This article is co-published with our partners at The Atlantic. When asked on Saturday about his conversation with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific…
Former Prosecutor Renato Mariotti’s Tweet Threads on National Security (Nov. 3-10)
Here is an exposition and presentation of some of this week’s national security-related threads authored by Just Security Editorial Board member and former federal prosecutor…
Congress is Facing Decisions on Torture, and Needs to Treat Them As Such
On October 17, the Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing on Christopher Sharpley’s nomination to become the next CIA inspector general. He has been the agency’s acting…
Veterans and Others Who Serve
The last few months have provided stark reminders of the dangerous ways the United States sometimes treats its veterans. “The Vietnam War,” the 10-part documentary by Ken Burns &…