Military
902 Articles
Serial Angst
I’m one of the many who loved the first season of Serial — the Peabody Award-winning podcast spun off from NPR’s This American Life. It wasn’t just that the case of Adnan…
Add Women and Stir? Women in the Military
At a midday Press Conference in the Pentagon Briefing Room, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter unexpectedly announced that that the Pentagon will open all combat jobs to women. He…
Abstention and the “Other” D.C. Circuit Military Commission Appeal
Lots of attention has been focused both here and elsewhere in recent days on tomorrow’s en banc oral argument before the D.C. Circuit in “Al Bahlul IV,” which makes a lot…
Foreign Fighters, Mercenaries, and Private Military Companies Under International Law
Editor’s Note: This is the third post in a miniseries about the International Committee of the Red Cross’s newly released Report on International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges…
The Mavi Marmara Appeal: The ICC Prosecutor Wins by Losing
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
McCain’s Hearing Threat and the Bergdahl Court-Martial
Last month, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated his opinion that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who is currently facing charges before a…
Congress: Troops to Syria Means It’s Time (Finally) to Act
News that the United States has sent its first — albeit “fewer than 50” — troops to fight ISIS in Syria highlights once again the need for a new authorization to use military…
Too Much Posturing and Not Enough Substance on Encryption
Obama administration officials revealed late last week that will not force technology firms to weaken digital encryption to give government greater access to user data. This is…
Public Access to Military Trials: The Increasingly Strange Case of Sergeant Bergdahl
I still don’t know what to make of the government’s case against Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl (of Taliban detainee transfer fame) for charges of desertion and misbehavior before…
When Do Countries Have to Investigate War Crimes?
In late August, the New York Times and others reported that the US Army had reopened a criminal investigation into the murders of at least 17 civilians in Afghanistan in 2012 and…
A Weapon That Keeps on Killing
When the cluster bombs fell on the town of Kaunda in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains in late May, local authorities collected the bomblets that were scattered about and placed them in…
The Alarming Gaps in Military Appellate Review
We pay a lot of attention on this blog to the Guantánamo military commissions and the principal structural defect in those tribunals as currently constituted, to wit, their power…