Department of Defense (DoD)
290 Articles
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.
The Pentagon’s 2018 Civilian Casualties Report: What’s In It and What’s Next
The Pentagon’s latest annual report, released this morning, lists shockingly low numbers of "credible" civilian casualties. It also illustrated the need for better processes…
New Pentagon Report Significantly Undercounts Civilian Casualties
The latest annual report was on time and included more details than it had in the past, thanks to additional congressional requirements. But it still significantly undercounts…
New DoD Policy on Amends Needs to Address Transparency Gap
New information from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) reveals a previously unrecognized transparency gap in the U.S. military’s efforts to acknowledge and address civilian…
How the Pentagon Made Transgender Rights Disappear
The Pentagon's new limits on transgender military service amount to a ban that is anything but "gender-blind."
The Pentagon Wants to Streamline Security Clearances by Using AI. That’s a Dangerous Idea.
If DoD's new autonomous system goes awry, it could embed bias and a resistance to oversight. Is existence alone might jeopardize civil liberties, modify subjects’ behavior in…
The Pentagon’s Latest Report on Civilian Casualties Policy
Late on Friday night, the Pentagon submitted to Congress and publicly released a 17-page report required under the 2019 John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)…
What Now for the Mattis Transgender Policy?
As I predicted here a couple of weeks ago, the Supreme Court today unanimously denied the government’s petitions for certiorari before judgment in the “transgender…