Recent Articles

News Roundup and Notes: October 8, 2013
Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. U.S. raids On the operation…

The Interface of IHL and IHR: A Taxonomy
As the excellent Jinks/Corn/Rona series on IHL/IHR notes, there are a number of theories surrounding the interface between international humanitarian law (or the law of armed conflict)…

Al-Liby: Male Captus, Bene Detentus?
Further to Marty’s post today on the question of Libya’s consent vel non to the recent al-Liby operation, we should also call attention to a long-withheld OLC opinion (13 U.S.…

Benghazi Oversight and the Death of Expeditionary Diplomacy
The assassination of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11/2012 was a stark and sad example of the risks taken by diplomats who push out into the field in unstable…

Harold Koh’s Case for Humanitarian Intervention
The week before last, Harold Koh posted a defense of President Obama’s authority to use force in Syria without congressional authorization. Last week Professor Koh turned to…

Selective Disclosure About Targeted Killing
For several years, the ACLU has been pressing the Obama administration to be more transparent about the targeted-killing program. I’m starting to wonder whether it understands…

News Roundup and Notes: October 7, 2013
Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. U.S. raids in Libya and…

U.S. Military Operations Against al-Shabaab/al-Qaeda—and Who Exactly is Ikrima?
What domestic legal authority did President Obama invoke to send a team of Navy SEALs into Somalia this weekend to capture or kill a member of al-Shabaab, the terrorist organization…

The Capture of Abu Anas al-Liby and the Attack on an al-Shabaab Leader [UPDATED as of Monday morning]
A couple of notes to follow up on Steve’s post [with UPDATES through Monday morning]: Abu Anas al-Liby is alleged to have been a leader in the al Qaeda conspiracy to bomb…

The Baraawe Raid: A Test for the Obama Administration’s View of al Shabab? [UPDATED]
[Update: 10:10 p.m. (EDT): It now appears that earlier reports were premature–and that the Baraawe raid may have resulted in the death of the senior Shabab leader earlier…

Recap of the Week’s Posts on Just Security (Sept. 28-Oct. 4)
I. Surveillance and Data Collection Jennifer Granick, Reforming FISA: A Critical Look at the Wyden/Udall Proposal and Foreign Surveillance (Monday, Sept. 30) Jennifer Granick, Intelligence…

“Relevance” at the Royale Inn
The NSA’s controversial call records program is predicated on the extraordinary premise that the phone logs of nearly all Americans are “relevant” to an intelligence…