Department of State
287 Articles
New Atrocities Prevention & Response Legislation Introduced
I posted earlier about a new bipartisan bill to advance accountability in Syria: the Syrian War Crimes Accountability Act of 2017 (current status is here). Two additional pieces…
Congress Protects U.S. Foreign Aid For Now but the Budget Wars Are Just Beginning
While overshadowed by news that House Republicans voted to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, last week’s signing of a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill to fund the…
Gutting the State Department is National Security Malpractice
If you think about national security in health terms, the State Department serves as a primary care physician, a vaccine researcher, a psychiatrist, a rehabilitation expert, and…
The Deconstruction of America’s Global Leadership
Stephen Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, has made it clear that the Trump administration wants to see the “deconstruction of the administrative state.”…
Is the State Department Being Intentionally Gutted?
Amidst the public speculation of a State Department possibly in disarray, I know that officers at State are still hard at work. One example: I recently received in my email inbox…
What Does it Mean to Designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization?
According to reports, President Donald Trump may shortly issue an Executive Order directing the State Department to examine whether it should designate the Muslim Brotherhood as…
5 Best and 5 Worst Moments from the Week’s Confirmation Hearings on US National Security Issues
The week of confirmation hearings is over, and it’s time to take stock of what we have learned from the people the President-elect has nominated to lead his administration in…
Highlights from Tillerson Hearings on Nat’l Security and Int’l Law Issues
Secretary of State nominee, Rex Tillerson, who was until recently the CEO of ExxonMobil, faced the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday and fielded difficult questions…
Questions for Tillerson and Pompeo Confirmation Hearings — Updated
Confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks continue Wednesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding its second day of hearings to examine…
President-elect Trump’s Picks Redefine “Two-Tiered System of Justice”
With his selection of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to serve as national security adviser, his continued consideration of retired Gen. David Petraeus for a possible administration…
The Economic Incentives for International Cybersecurity Coordination
On Friday, the President’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity published its final report, making 16 recommendations and identifying 53 action items to improve cybersecurity…
Anticipating Trump: Should Government Lawyers Stay or Go?
[Editors’ note: This post is the latest in Just Security’s series on the ethical and legal dilemmas of serving in the Trump administration. On Friday, Jon Michaels wrote…