Recent Articles

Sally Yates, Russia Testimony & Executive Privilege in the Trump Era
This week has shed light on the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to executive privilege, but it has also cast doubt over President Donald Trump’s ability to assert…

Why the Foreign Policy Sky is Not Falling
Both Michael Fuchs’ angst-ridden piece for Just Security (“The Deconstruction of America’s Global Leadership”), and Jack Goldsmith’s equally frenetically titled (but…
The Early Edition: March 29, 2017
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. The TRUMP CABINET’S RELATIONSHIP…

Trump’s Islamophobic Record Provides Backdrop for New Counterterrorism Policies
Every one of the 10 airports targeted by the new “laptop ban,” issued last week by the Department of Homeland Security, is located in a Muslim-majority country. Unsurprisingly,…

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…