War Powers
201 Articles
Are all “members” of ISIL targetable?
Rita Siemion and Heather Brandon of Human Rights First have published a comprehensive post on some of the more important aspects of Brian Egan’s speech to ASIL. (My own…
International Law à la Carte: Brian Egan’s Jus ad Bellum Doctrine
Last week’s speech by State Department Legal Adviser Brian Egan laying out the legal and policy rationales behind the US’s war against ISIL was largely overlooked in the mainstream…
Should (and can) the CIA use non-covert force against ISIL in Iraq and Syria?
Ken Delanian of NBC has an important new story (written and video) about an apparent interbranch dispute concerning whether the CIA should be authorized to use force against ISIL…
Obama’s Plan Is Not a Guantánamo North
President Obama’s plan to close Guantánamo has seemingly been criticized by all sides of the political spectrum. At a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee this…
The Fuzzy Scope of the Forever War Needs Definition
For years now, the questions of where and with whom exactly the United States is at war have been treated as somewhat academic. It’s not that they didn’t matter, but a gridlocked…
Closing Guantánamo, Episode XXVIII: This Time, We Really, Really (Really!) Mean It…
Word has it that, later today, the Obama administration will release its long-ballyhooed Plan. To. Close. Guantánamo. (Not to be confused, mind you, with the original plan from…
How Should International Law Deal With Doubt in the Era of Drones and Big Data?
Recent reports on the NSA’s use of metadata and machine learning to generate intelligence for drone strikes in Pakistan spotlights the somewhat less-discussed legal concerns…
It’s All About the Associated Forces
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quietly joined the battle over authorizing the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant last week. To the surprise of many given…
The Irresponsible Institutional Politics of an “Election Year”
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…
An unspecified (and unclear) debate about the Rules of Engagement in Syria
In a lead story today, the Washington Post reports that France, the U.K., and Iraqi commanders are all “chaf[ing] at” or “complain[ing] about” the United…
The Schiff AUMF: It’s even better than that
I heartily concur in the praise that Jen and Steve, and Jack Goldsmith, have heaped upon the new draft AUMF proposed by Representative Adam Schiff. Indeed, my enthusiasm for…
Rep. Schiff’s Newly-Proposed AUMF: Praise And A Caveat
Over at Lawfare, Jack Goldsmith praises Adam Schiff’s newly-proposed Consolidated Authorization to Use Military Force. With one important caveat (see below), we share in Jack’s…