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.
4,601 Articles
The DOD Law of War Manual and Command Responsibility: Is it Time for a “Necessary and Reasonable” Change to the UCMJ?
Editor’s Note: This post is the latest in Just Security’s “mini forum” on the new Defense Department Law of War Manual. This series includes posts from Sean Watts, Eric…
What Happens if American-Trained Rebels Commit War Crimes?
It is widely known that the US is facing numerous challenges in arming and training a select number of fighters as part of a group known as the “New Syrian Forces,” which are…
The Gendered Dimension of High-Stakes Security Diplomacy – The Iran Deal from Another Perspective
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
The Dark Side of Peace Enforcement: Sexual Exploitation in CAR
Media reports continue to trickle through detailing rape and indiscriminate killing by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR). Despite condemnation by UN Headquarters…
Warrantless Phone Tracking: The Fourth Amendment and Circuit Splits
Last week, a divided three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit ruled in United States v. Graham that the government must obtain a warrant to obtain from a phone user’s historical…
A Readers’ Guide to our Mini-Forum on DOD’s new Law of War Manual
As you’ve probably noticed this summer, we’ve been hosting a mini-forum on the Defense Department’s Law of War Manual that was published earlier this summer. As Marty Lederman pointed…
The APA’s Watershed Move to Ban Psychologists’ Complicity in Torture
As Marty Lederman wrote about here, the APA Council of Representatives made waves on Friday by approving, with a near-unanimous vote, a resolution that (1) bans psychologists…
Regulating Autonomous Weapons Might be Smarter Than Banning Them
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
A Missed Opportunity: DOD’s Law of War Manual & Applying Law as a Matter of Policy
Editor’s Note: This post is the latest in Just Security’s “mini forum” on the new Defense Department Law of War Manual. This series includes posts from Sean Watts,…
Background Reading on Umm Sayyaf’s Transfer to Kurdish Authorities
The Pentagon yesterday announced that it has transferred Umm Sayyaf, the US’s first detainee in the campaign against ISIL, to the Interior Ministry of Iraqi Kurdistan where…
Is al-Qaeda v Islamic State the Right Question?
Which terrorist group is a bigger threat to the United States, al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS)? It almost sounds like the sort of question you’d put to a child comparing movie…
It’s Complicated: The Nuance of Any US Effort to Defend Division 30 from Assad
It has been reported that President Obama has authorized the US armed forces to come to the defense of the new non-State group the United States is training to fight ISIS (Islamic…