Recent Articles
Shaky Legal Grounds: Syria Demands US Assault on Raqqa Must Work with Assad’s Forces
On Friday, Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations stated that a U.S.-backed assault on ISIL’s capital city of Raqqa would be illegitimate unless militarily coordinated…
National Security-Related Congressional Hearings, March 27-March 31
Tuesday, March 28 10:00am – House Committee on Armed Services – Military Assessment of Russian Activities and Security Challenges in Europe (here) 10:00am – House Committee…
The International Legal Environment for Nuclear Deterrence
Russian spy ships stationed off the U.S. coast, provocative overflights of U.S. warships, and deployments of U.S. tanks in Central Europe are no longer artifacts of the Cold War,…
San Francisco Sets an Example of How to Resist Surveillance in Trump Era
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) suspended its participation in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) last month. JTTFs are counterterrorism-focused intelligence-sharing…
What Explains the Rise in Civilian Casualties in US Military Ops–Iraq, Syria and Elsewhere
Last Friday, several news outlets reported that perhaps as many as 200 civilians had been killed in a recent U.S. airstrike in Mosul in northern Iraq, where the U.S. is participating…
Lenient Sentences in Int’l Criminal Court Obstruction Case Undermine Court’s Authority
The International Criminal Court faces many external challenges when investigating and prosecuting its cases. But sometimes the wounds are self-inflicted. Last week Jean-Pierre…
Reforming Surveillance In the Age of Donald Trump
Above: An NSA site in Germany. On Wednesday, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes (R-CA), gave a press conference in which he reported that Trump…
President Trump’s Campaign Promises Stick with Us—They should stick with him, too
The ongoing travel ban litigation has triggered intense debate on whether an assessment of the ban’s constitutionality must be limited to the “four corners” of President…
We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is…?
Apparently, my post on treason from yesterday was too short–and it has generated lots of skeptical commentary, especially in response to Kate’s tweet, below, from…
Recap of Recent Posts on Just Security (Mar. 20-Mar. 24)
I. The Travel Ban Executive Orders Ryan Goodman, Brief Q&A with Lisa Monaco: How the New Carry-On Ban Compares to Travel Ban and Past Practice (Tuesday, Mar. 21) Kate Brannen…
Incidental Collection Is Extremely Troubling, Regardless of Legality
A lot of ink has been spilled over statements by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Nunes that President Trump’s communications were incidentally collected pursuant to a surveillance…
Trump is Making Us All Fight for the Truth
By almost any measure, this was a disastrous week for President Donald Trump. What went wrong for the president? On Monday, FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the FBI is investigating…