Pakistan
64 Articles
Transparency and Lethal Operations: A Checklist of What’s Public and What’s Still Secret [Updated]
Transparency is the touchstone for many debates about US lethal operations against Al Qaeda and associated forces. This post contains a checklist of sorts—cataloguing what information…
10 Years of Drone Strikes in Pakistan–but do you know whether it’s an “area of active hostilities”?
Today marks the ten-year anniversary of the first reported US drone strike in Pakistan (punctuated by another one today). Yet there is still official silence about a crucial…
US Resumes Drone Strikes in Pakistan: A New Course of Action?
In the past 24-48 hours, the United States has reportedly conducted two successive drone strikes in Pakistan’s northwest tribal area—ending an almost six-month suspension of…
New study may explode some myths about drones (and may create new ones)
The CNA Corporation, a non-profit research and analysis organization which runs the Center for Naval Analyses, recently published an important report by Larry Lewis, entitled Drone…
State Practice and the Use of Force: Iran Invokes the “Unwilling or Unable” Test against its Neighbors
Can the United States send armed forces into another state to deal with a national security threat from a militant group when the host state is “unwilling or unable” to contain…
A Rejoinder from Jenks and Corn re U.S. SIGINT Based Targeting
There is probably no area of greater consensus between us and Professors Goodman and Jinks (their post) than the recognition that the law of armed conflict should and must be responsive…
Military Targeting Based on Cellphone Location
A recent news story by Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill details the use of NSA signals intelligence (SIGINT) – including cellphone and SIM card data – to locate and kill…
Eyes Wide Shut: Scahill and Greenwald’s Flawed Critique of U.S. SIGINT Based Targeting
[Editor’s Note: Stay tuned later today for a post by Ryan Goodman and Derek Jinks responding to the guest post by Chris Jenks and Geoffrey Corn.] In The NSA’s Secret Role in…
Which Policies Apply to the Killing of U.S. Citizens in Pakistan?
Yesterday, the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, and the LA Times reported on debates within the U.S. government about “whether to authorize a lethal strike…
Lethal Targeting of US Citizens: AP Report Raises More Questions Than Answers
In a highly provocative piece this morning, Kimberly Dozier writes that the Obama administration is weighing another drone strike against a U.S. citizen. That is obviously a…
US to Reduce Drone Program in Pakistan – But Does Pakistan “Agree”?
A must-read story in the Wall Street Journal this morning details a “general agreement” between the US and Pakistan to “narrow” the drone program to a short list of high-level…
A Guide to Revelations in Robert Gates’ Book (Duty): The Obama Years
Robert Gates’ memoir, Duty, which will be released later this week, contains significant insights into US foreign policy and international affairs affecting our country’s national…