Obama administration
33 Articles

Biden’s Guantanamo Politics are not Obama’s
To the extent that political concerns with moving aggressively toward Guantanamo closure were at one time persuasive among some executive branch officials, they shouldn’t be…

The Ballooning Biden Defense Budget
There is a bipartisan path to cut unnecessary spending in the defense budget that protects U.S. security in a cost-effective way.

Undermining Norms? How the Antipersonnel Mine Ban Has Endured in US Policy
The Trump shift became more notable for what it did not lead to than for what it did. Now Biden has a chance to set US policy on the side of humanity.

New Just Security Series: Reflections on Afghanistan on the Eve of Withdrawal
A series of essays that considers the legacy of America’s longest war as well as what the future holds for Afghanistan.

The President and Immigration Law: Introduction to a Just Security Series
In order to develop a meaningful reform agenda, it is essential to understand how the U.S. immigration system and the president’s prominent role within it came to be. In a new…

Precision and Civilian Casualties: Policymakers Believe Drones Can Be Precise. That May Not Be Enough.
What do policymakers’ own views of drones – particularly as they relate to civilian casualties – reflect, and how do those views affect policymaking?

Obama Admin: Only One Civilian Killed by U.S. Outside of War Zones in 2016
On the eve of the inauguration of a new president, the Director of National Intelligence released a report (full text) that summarizes the number of military strikes taken by the…

U.S.-Russian Relations After the Russian Hacking Affair
Russian President Vladimir Putin has defied the long-standing, hard rules of the game in handling espionage affairs by failing to follow the Russian Foreign Ministry’s recommendation…

The Drone Memos Offers a Critique of Obama Administration’s ‘Shortsighted’ Policies on Targeted Killing
There are a lot of books about drones. In addition to fictionalized accounts of drone use and technical manuals, numerous policy books have been written that describe drone technology,…

Calling Mr. Trump
President-elect Donald Trump’s forays into foreign policy since the election have been controversial, to say the least. Mr. Trump’s first meeting with a foreign official after…

The Bobbitt Version
Beginning in 2002 with the publication of The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History and continuing through Terror and Consent: the Wars for the Twenty First…
In MacDill Speech, Obama Makes the Case For Why Wars Should be Fought Lawfully [Full Text]
President Barack Obama made a last trip to MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday to put his final mark on his administration’s counterterrorism strategy and to thank…