Category: Lawfare

Sweden’s Challenging Road to NATO Membership

Swedish Chief of Defence General Micael Bydén with Chair of the NATO Military Committee Admiral Rob Bauer at Exercise Vigilant Knife. (NATO, https://flic.kr/p/2nJJF48; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/) Contrary to widespread belief, Sweden has not been neutral since at least its…

Who Are You Calling a Great Power?

President Joe Biden meets with other G7 leaders during a meeting at Schloss Elmau in Krün, Germany, on June 26, 2022. Photo credit: Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz via Flickr/Public Domain. Editor’s Note: The United States is in…

Could Beijing Risk a Diversionary War Against Taiwan?

Seaman Xi Chan stands lookout as the guided-missile destroyer USS Barry transits the Taiwan Strait. (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign Samuel Hardgrove, https://flic.kr/p/2iTV5BF; CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) China’s deteriorating strategic situation and President Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power appears to…

Unpacking the Biden Special Counsel Announcement

Robert K. Hur (Patrick Siebert, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdgovpics/51173603522/in/photostream/; CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Attorney General Merrick Garland had no choice but to appoint a special counsel to handle whatever criminal matters may arise out of the presence of classified information in locations associated…

On Protecting the Undersea Cable System

Seabees remove corroded zinc anodes from an undersea cable. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnavy/28073762161) Cables the size of a garden hose crisscross the oceans. Unlike your hose at home, these cables require all the protection afforded to other pieces of critical infrastructure, like the…

The EU’s AI Act Is Barreling Toward AI Standards That Do Not Exist

(Jai79, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:European_Commission_in_Brussels.jpg; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) Efforts to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) must aim to balance protecting the health, safety, and fundamental rights of individuals while reaping the benefits of innovation. These regulations will protect people from physical harms (like AI…

Can You Spot the Difference Between Jan. 6 and Jan. 8?

Former President Jair Bolsonaro (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jair_Bolsonaro_paz_e_amor.jpg) Anyone watching Sunday’s failed coup attempt in Brazil’s capital city of Brasília would be forgiven for feeling a bit of déjà vu. Just two days after television networks aired scenes of rioters storming the U.S.…

Proud Boys Trial Diary

Among the more than 940 federal criminal prosecutions arising from the Jan. 6 insurrection to date, the seditious conspiracy trial of five top members of the Proud Boys organization could well be the most important and informative of all. Accordingly, I…

Gentlemen’s Rules for Reading Each Other’s Mail: The New OECD Principles on Government Access to Personal Data Held by Private Sector Entities

OECD Conference Centre main entrance. Paris, France. (OECD/Michael Dean, https://flic.kr/p/9Yiczj; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/) In 1928, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson famously shut down an intelligence program that deciphered encrypted international cables, indignantly proclaiming that “a gentleman doesn’t read…

Was the Iraq War a Foreseeable Blunder?

President George W. Bush. (Official U.S. Government photo by Eric Draper/The U.S. National Archives) A review of Melvyn P. Leffler, “Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq” (Oxford University Press, 2023) *** Why did the United…

One Small Legislative Step for Cybersecurity

Department of Health & Human Services, Washington, D.C. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Department_of_Health_%26_Human_Services_-_Sarah_Stierch.jpg) The massive appropriations bill signed by President Biden on Dec. 29, 2022, included, among other riders, language requiring the makers of internet-connected medical devices to reasonably ensure that such devices and…

The Cyber Liability Fight Begins

Colonial Pipeline Gas Terminal (https://www.flickr.com/photos/orbitaljoe/16538597) Third-party liability for cybersecurity failures just got a lot more real. For years, observers of cybersecurity practices have noted a systematic underinvestment in cybersecurity by various enterprises. Critical to explaining that gap was the twofold…

The Lawfare Podcast: A January 6 Anniversary

It’s January 6—the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection. There has been a lot of activity in those two years to account for what happened on that terrible day. To go over it all, Lawfare editor in chief Benjamin Wittes sat…

Wargames Can’t Tell Us How to Deter a Chinese Attack on Taiwan—But Different Games Might

A reconstruction of a Prussian military wargame (kriegsspie). (Matthew Kirschenbaum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kriegsspiel_1824.jpg; CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en) Wargames that simulate combat between the United States and China near Taiwan can provide useful insight about potential military challenges. However, analysts should be wary…

The Aftermath, Episode 5: Who Tells Your Story?

We’re pleased to bring you a new episode of The Aftermath, our narrative podcast series on the search for accountability in response to the Jan. 6 insurrection: This episode—our fifth—explores another aspect of Congress’s response to Jan. 6: efforts to…

How to End Wars: Lawyering Peace in a Changing World

British Vickers machine gun crew during the Battle of Menin Road Ridge, World War I (Ypres Salient, West Flanders, Belgium). (Source: Ernest Brooks, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.) A review of Paul Williams, “Lawyering Peace” (Cambridge University Press, 2021) ***…

In Addressing Russia’s Attacks on Zaporizhzhia, Look to Africa

The IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya arrives at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine. (IAEA, https://www.flickr.com/photos/35068899@N03/52329096480/; CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are shocking and dangerous.  Since March, Russia has seized…

A French Perspective on Elon Musk’s Twitter

Elon Musk (https://csmapnyu.org/news-views/news/how-to-evaluate-elon-musk-s-potential-impact-on-twitter) A lot has happened since Elon Musk made a sensational entrance in Twitter headquarters by carrying a sink. As soon as Musk took control of Twitter on Oct. 28, he fired a large part of the compa…

The Year That Was (2022)

As December draws to a close, we’ve reached the requisite moment to reflect on what happened in 2022. And although it may be cliche to say so, the answer from us at Lawfare is . . . well, a lot.…

New Bill Proposes Banning TikTok in the U.S.

Tiktok by Solen Feyissa (https://www.flickr.com/photos/solen-feyissa/50179261657) The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which screens foreign investments in the U.S. for national security risks, is by multiple accounts in conversation with the social […]Content was cut in order…

FISA Section 702 (2008-2023?)

Albert V Bryan Federal District Courthouse – Alexandria Va (https://www.flickr.com/photos/23165290@N00/6830726846/) More than 200,000 foreign targets a year. “Irreplaceable” insight. The National Security Agency’s “

The Jan. 6 Report: A Summary with Some Analysis

The Jan. 6 Committee (https://twitter.com/January6thCmte/status/1546882335559323649) ‘Twas three nights before Christmas And all through the House, Not a creature was stirring Except the staff of the Jan. 6 Committee, which was frantically trying to release their final report and many hundreds…

Inspector General Reform in the NDAA

The United States Capitol building (Photo by Architect of the Capitol, https://flic.kr/p/LyE13F; Official United States Government Work, https://www.usa.gov/government-works) The National Defense Authorization Act, which President Biden signed into law today, contains important reforms to protect inspectors general from opportunistic removal…

Jan. 6 Committee Issues Final Report

On Dec. 22, the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol released its final report. The release of the 845-page report follows nearly 18 months of hearings and investigations by the committee and…

The Dangerous Omission in the Jan. 6 Committee’s Report Summary

FBI Director Christopher Wray (https://www.flickr.com/photos/fbi/37264339494) The Jan. 6 committee’s work investigating the Capitol insurrection has been incredibly impressive. Investigators have uncovered new and damning information about Donald Trump’s culpability in the violence of Jan. 6; they’ve reinvented the congressional hearing…

When Reading the Jan. 6 Committee’s Summary, Don’t Skip the Notes!

The Jan. 6 Committee (https://twitter.com/January6thCmte/status/1604875420599570432/photo/1) The most important feature of the 154 pages of “Introductory Material to the Final Report of the Select Committee” is not the much-discussed criminal referrals of Donald Trump and others. The criminal referrals—released Monday by…

The Dangerous Omission in the Jan. 6 Committee’s Report Summary

FBI Director Christopher Wray (https://www.flickr.com/photos/fbi/37264339494) The Jan. 6 committee’s work investigating the Capitol insurrection has been incredibly impressive. Investigators have uncovered new and damning information about Donald Trump’s culpability in the violence of Jan. 6; they’ve reinvented the congressional hearing…

Reflections on Three Decades of U.S. Efforts to Resolve the Lockerbie Bombing

Pan Am Flight 103, Dec. 21,1988. Lockerbie bombing Boeing 747–121 (U.K. Air Accident Investigation Branch, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pan_Am_Flight_103._Crashed_Lockerbie,_Scotland,_21_December_1988.jpg, U.K. Open Government Licence 2.0) On Dec. 11, the Department of Justice announced that it had taken custody of a Libyan man, Abu Agila…

Who Really Benefits From Banning White Supremacist Groups?

German police watch a demonstration against nuclear waste disposal in Wendland, Germany, on November 24, 2011. Photo credit: Montecruz Foto via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. Editor’s Note: As the United States and other countries consider more bans on right-wing terrorist…

Unpacking The 2020 Portland Chaos

Former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf (Official United States Government photo, https://flic.kr/p/2k3J8BZ; Official United States Government Work, https://www.usa.gov/government-works) In October 2022, an unredacted version of a redacted 2021 report sponsored by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary…

The Case for War Torts—for Ukraine and Beyond

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on a visit to the previously Russian occupied city of Bucha (Official Ukrainian Government work, https://flic.kr/p/2ncUhLk; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) In May 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Ukraine’s intention “to ensure that Russia compensates in one way or…

The U.N. Security Council Adopts a Standing Humanitarian “Carve-Out”

The United Nations Security Council Chamber (Photo by MusikAnimal, bit.ly/3hkYNVQ; CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en) On Dec. 9, the U.N. Security Council adopted a standing humanitarian “carve-out” to nearly all of its asset freezes. (The remaining asset-freeze regime, as we explain…

The Right Time For Chip Export Controls

A blue circuit board (Photo by Yuri Samoilov, bit.ly/3Btj02q; CC BY 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en) On Oct. 7, the U.S.-China tech competition heated up dramatically when the Biden administration imposed wide-ranging semiconductor-related export controls on China. While there has been plenty of…

The U.N. Security Council Adopts a Standing Humanitarian “Carve-out”

The United Nations Security Council Chamber (Photo by MusikAnimal, bit.ly/3hkYNVQ; CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en) On Dec. 9, the United Nations Security Council adopted a standing humanitarian “carve-out” to nearly all of its asset freezes. (The remaining asset-freeze regime, as we…

Section 308’s Overbroad Restrictions on Post-Intelligence Community Jobs

The original headquarters building of the Central Intelligence Agency (Official United States Government photo, https://flic.kr/p/9fxzoc; https://www.usa.gov/government-works) With little fanfare, Congress has adopted a potentially sweeping restriction on the jobs that members of the intelligence community can take when they head…

Accountability at the U.S.-Africa Summit

The first session of the 2014 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit (Official United States government work, https://flic.kr/p/oBwXGg; https://www.usa.gov/government-works) Next week, the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit will be held eight years after the first U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit was held in Washington D.C. in August…

A More Independent Special Counsel

The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building (Photo by VOA, http://gdb.voanews.com/05641786-AD10-4365-B9A5-5B64EA68F159.jpg; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) Attorney General Merrick Garland, citing “extraordinary circumstances,” recently appointed a special counsel to investigat […]Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the…

Content Moderation Sacrificed in Left-Right Deals on Tech Reform

The United States Capitol building (Official United States Government photo by the Architect of the Capitol, https://flic.kr/p/aSmTY8; Official U.S. government works, https://www.usa.gov/government-works) With the clock ticking on the postelection lame-duck session of Congress, tech reformers are pushing for votes on…

Solar Geoengineering: The Case for Research Part II

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series on the case for researching the taboo concept of solar geoengineering as a potential bridge to achieving net zero emissions. Part one summarizes some concerns raised about solar engineering. This…

Oral Argument Preview: Blassingame v. Trump

2021 storming of the United States Capitol (https://www.flickr.com/photos/37527185@N05/50812356151/) Tomorrow morning, Dec. 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear oral arguments on whether former President Donald Trump should receive official acts immunity for his…

Human Security and Changing Threats: NATO’s Policies for 2022 and Beyond

NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. (Source: NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nato/27029507408, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Although Polish President Andrzej Duda confirmed that the missile that killed two Polish citizens inside the country’s borders in November was an accidental result…

Charting a Path Forward for Afghanistan

A young girl on a rooftop in Herat, Afghanistan. (U.N. Photo/Eric Kanalstein, https://flic.kr/p/dZD7P5; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/) Over the past year and a half of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the impasse in engagement between the Taliban and the international community…

Did al-Qaeda Die With Ayman al-Zawahiri?

Ayman al-Zawahiri appears in an al-Qaeda video released in April 2022. Photo credit: Al-Qaeda media. Editor’s Note: The killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in July raised the obvious question of who would succeed him—and many months later, we still…

Private-Sector Cyber Defense in Armed Conflict

A U.S. Air Force network administrator working on a network control center (Official United States government work by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jerome Duhan, https://flic.kr/p/jD9Atv) Just hours before the first group of Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine in February…

Five Stray Thoughts on the Oath Keepers Verdict

The U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection (Photo by Tyler Merbler, https://flic.kr/p/2kqQwBP; CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) I already offered my account of the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence in the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy prosecution on Monday morning.…

Introducing the Lawfare Crossword Puzzle (and Contest)

In a Lawfare debut, we are posting this national security-related crossword puzzle by Brad Weigmann for our readers’ bewilderment. After solving the puzzle, try your hand at finding a bonus answer, which should be a breeze for at least a portion of the intelligence community.…

The mBridge to Somewhere: Central Banking Is Having Its Sputnik Moment

The Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Richard Bett, https://flic.kr/p/2nxNf85; CC0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/) Last month, an international institution that is barely known outside central banker circles released a report that should concern all U.S. policymakers seeking to preserve U.S.…

Is the DSA a New Dawn of Legislating Platform Governance Globally?

A gathering of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France (Official French Government Photo, https://flic.kr/p/2mY94zE; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) The newly passed Digital Services Act (DSA) in the European Union is what some may call Rorschach legislation or, depending on your point…

To Designate or Not? Russia and SST Status

The city of Bucha, previously occupied by Russian forces (Official Ukrainian Government Photo, https://flic.kr/p/2nd1Vjf; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) As Ukraine implores the world to condemn Russia to pariah status, a live question is whether the  United States should designate Russia as…

Militant Democracy Stages a Comeback in Brazil

The Brazilian Federal Supreme Court building (Photo by Alex Pereira, bit.ly/3U2S3ZO; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) We haven’t seen a Latin American judiciary move aggressively against an authoritarian attempt on democracy since Colombia did so in 2010.  But in the leadup to…

Trump Has a Bad Day at the Eleventh Circuit

Former President Trump speaking at a rally in Nevada. (Gage Skidmore, https://flic.kr/p/E1FHR3; CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) It is 2:03 p.m. at the Elbert P. Tuttle Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia, and it’s time for a rematch between Donald Trump and Department…

We Live in an Age of Futile Impeachments

The east front of the United States Capitol building (Official Architect of the Capitol photo, https://flic.kr/p/2mQRkAK; United States Government Work) During the Republic’s first 41 presidencies (Washington through Bush I), there were only two presidential impeachment episodes, both of them…

Programmable Biology Puts Biotech on the Geopolitical Agenda

Cross section of plant cells (Photo by Berkshire Community College Bioscience Image Lab, https://flic.kr/p/VW874z; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) In September, Jake Sullivan—President Biden’s national security adviser—announced that the U.S. government expects biotechnology to play an “outsized importance over the coming decade”…

Democracies Must Empower a Biotech Future for All

President Biden visits researchers at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, on Feb. 11, 2021. Photo credit: NIH/Chiachi Chang, Public Domain. Editor’s Note: Although the science of biotechnology is moving forward at breakneck…

Flynn Must Fly to Fulton

Retired U.S. Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn at a campaign rally for Donald Trump at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Flynn_(30020745053).jpg) Editor’s note: The following is a dispatch from Nov. 15, the latest episode in our series on…

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Special Counsel Jack Smith (https://www.scp-ks.org/en/spo/specialist-prosecutor) Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision, announced this afternoon, to appoint a special counsel to take over two investigations involving former President Donald Trump must have been a painful one for the attorney general. It means…

Summarizing the 2022 National Defense Strategy

The U.S. Department of Defense building, also known as The Pentagon (Photo by Master Sgt. Ken Hammond, bit.ly/3Gq1NKB; Official United States Government Work) On Oct. 27, the Department of Defense unveiled the unclassified version of the 2022 National Defense Strategy…

Keeping Up With Ransomware

Picture of a lock with circuit board pattern overlaid (Mark Fernandes, http://bit.ly/3EhdTTI; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) Earlier this month, the White House hosted the second meeting of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI). One of many initiatives on cybersecurity advanced by…

Democracy After the Midterms

Voters in Des Moines during the 2022 midterm elections. (Phil Roeder, https://bit.ly/3UFYnHP; CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) On Nov. 15, Donald Trump announced his third campaign for president of the United States. Over the course of a listless, rambling speech, he…

Cyber Norms in the Context of Armed Conflict

A man with his face obscured sits in front of a computer with code behind him (Photo by B_A, bit.ly/3hKfKJ8; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) In “‘Patriotic Hacking’ Is No Exception,” Jay Healey and Olivia Grinberg discussed Ukrainian government officials’ public outreach…

Can China Escape the Innovation Trap?

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives at COP21 (Photo by COP PARIS, bit.ly/3O9MDLh; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) For most foreign observers, the biggest takeaway from China’s recently completed 20th Party Congress is likely that Chinese Preside […]Content was cut in order to…