Department of Defense (DoD)
329 Articles
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…
Annotation of the Pentagon Report to Congress on Detainee Abuse by U.S. Partners in Yemen
In a mere two pages of carefully parsed prose, DoD has provided what can only be described as a deliberately misleading and deceptively evasive account of U.S. and Emirati actions…
Untangling the Issues in the “Transgender in the Military” Litigation
A few weeks ago, the Department of Justice made something of a splash by filing petitions for certiorari “before judgment” in three of the pending cases challenging then-Secretary…
The Pentagon Put Someone in Charge of Its Civilian Casualty Policy. Now What?
For all the time and attention that the Defense Department has rightly spent addressing civilian casualties, no single official at the Pentagon has ever been formally charged with…
Update: The Military, the Mexican Border and Posse Comitatus
Unlike the earlier deployment of National Guard personnel, the use of federal forces raises new issues concerning what they are permitted to do.
Letter to the Editor: Why Larger Defense Budgets Don’t Need to Come at the Expense of “Soft Power”
In his recent post (“The National Security Threat of Trump’s Defense Budget”) Bishop Garrison argues that the Trump administration’s proposed increases to the defense budget…
The National Security Threat of Trump’s Defense Budget
As a former military officer and national security appointee under President Barack Obama, I know firsthand the value of U.S. defense spending for securing the United States and…
What the Law of Military Obedience Can (and Can’t) Do–What Happens if a President’s Orders are Unlawful?
A proposal to bring back waterboarding and a “hell of a lot worse.” The possible suggestion that members of the military should intentionally target terrorists’ civilian…
So Far, Trump’s Border Guard Deployment Expected to Cost $180 Million
Because it was unsuccessful securing the amount of funding it wanted to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Trump administration is moving ahead with its plan to deploy…
Google Employees’ Ire Over DoD’s AI Work Shows Need to Bridge Tech and Security
Years ago, at a conference of national security types, I asked a pointed question of two former senior intelligence officials about encryption, and whether it was good for the…