A Government Lawyer[*] [This essay is available in PDF at this link] Introduction About two weeks before the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Trump, Professor Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman published an article on Lawfare. In it, they argue that Trump’s withholding from Ukraine of military aid and a White House meeting, meant […]
Complex Determinations: Deciphering Enemy Nuclear Intentions
Louis René Beres[*] [This essay is available in PDF at this link] Introduction In early May 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump—responding to Kim Jung-un’s latest round of missile tests—sought to reassure the American public. His seat-of-the-pants comments, however, were based entirely upon the presumed importance of his personal relationship with Kim Jung-un and had nothing […]
Perfidy in Cyberspace: The Requirement for Human Confidence
Sean K. Price[*] [This article is available in PDF at this link] Introduction The United States is under attack. In the months leading up to hostilities, the enemy’s intelligence agencies have identified key U.S. and allied military officials who use cloud-connected artificial pacemakers[1] or implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD).[2] Immediately preceding offensive operations in the physical […]
Volume 11, Issue 1
A Comparative Study of Domestic Laws Constraining Private Sector Active Defense Measures in Cyberspace by Brian Corcoran The U.S. private sector is vulnerable in cyberspace. In response, an increasingly mainstream national security argument calls for amending U.S. law to permit private sector actors to employ so-called “active defense” measures—a group of loosely-defined technical measures that […]
Five Legal Takeaways from the Syrian War
Shane R. Reeves[*] & Ronald T. P. Alcala[†] [This essay is available in PDF at this link] On December 19, 2018, President Trump ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria.[3] While U.S. troops have not completely left Syria,[4] the slow drawdown provides an opportunity to reflect on some of the legal challenges that arose […]
Volume 10, Issue 2
Issue 2 Totemic Functionalism in Foreign Affairs Law by Elad D. Gil In many Western democracies, and particularly in the United States, foreign affairs are primarily an executive enterprise. Owing to the executive’s relative institutional advantages over the legislature and the judiciary—in expertise, knowledge, speed, unitary structure, and democratic accountability—courts afford the President considerable deference […]