Department of Defense (DoD)
285 Articles
President Trump is Damaging Our Military: War Crimes Cases are the Latest Example
President Trump's intervention in military justice cases involving service members convicted or accused of war crimes continues a pattern of the president taking actions that weaken…
Exclusive: White House Ignored Pentagon Warning on Ukraine Funding
The Pentagon warned the White House over the summer that if the Ukraine funding wasn’t released by August 6, DoD would be at risk of violating the law.
The UN Report and Indiscriminate Attacks in Yemen
The UN Group makes a number of important legal findings, a leading international humanitarian law expert discusses.
Trump Cuts “Muscle” from European Defense to Fund Border Wall
The Trump administration is taking $770 million from the European Deterrence Initiative, a program created to shore up European defense after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
Army and Marine Corps Publish New Manual: The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Land Warfare
The Army and the Marine Corps just released its newest publication, The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Land Warfare. Over 20 years in the making, it provides operational…
Revisiting General Counsel Ney’s Speech in Light of New Pentagon Leadership
Former Department of Defense official (OSD) Luke Hartig critiques General Counsel Paul Ney's recent speech on the framework governing US military operations.
The U.S. Military Is Increasingly Politicized. Active-Duty Personnel Need to Prepare.
When Americans watch news coverage of any contemporary event, no one’s surprised to see it turn political. We live in a time when we can expect almost any topic – whether it’s…
What Did We Learn About Mark Esper and How He Views the World?
From Iran to Afghanistan to collective self-defense, the big takeaways from the Senate confirmation hearing for Mark Esper, nominated by the president to be defense secretary.…
Acting or Not, the Play’s The Thing
Focusing on the number of acting officials may detract from an assessment of the real failures of the Trump administration’s policy process and oversight gaps.
EXCLUSIVE: Draft Charter of Pompeo’s “Commission on Unalienable Rights” Hides Anti-Human Rights Agenda
Just Security has obtained the draft Charter for the Commission. Professor Hamilton writes: If the Commission follows the ideological roots of the "natural law" theory it is grounded…
Trump’s Preference for Acting Officials Puts National Security at Risk
This article is cross-posted on Lawfare. President Trump recently announced that his intended nominee for secretary of defense will be Patrick Shanahan, who became—way back…
What Questions Is the Pentagon Avoiding?
No on-camera briefings at the Pentagon mean officials are getting away with not answering questions about policy decisions and ongoing combat operations.