In association with the International Commission of Jurists

National Security Law

14 Nov

Via Tom Barnett's blog, I came across this essay by Jim Hoagland that was published last month in the Washington Post. Hoagland set out observations about the politicking at the World Policy Conference that was sponsored by the Institut Francais des Relations Internationales, a French think tank. What he saw has some interesting implications about the importance of soft power. After setting the scene by describing Russian...

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13 Nov

No, I'm not talking about how to do ubiquitous surveillance. Rather, I'm talking about how to take the product of massive video surveillance and turn it into, ahem, Art. (Well, maybe that's only a small-a "art.") Anyway, let's say you're an unsigned band from Manchester, England, and you want to make a video. You could hire some hip upstart video director, hire...

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11 Nov

Adding to the fortune-telling articles concerning the policies of the incoming Obama Administration, the Wall Street Journal states that the current administration's policies will go through the transition "largely intact."  However, I think it is just too early to tell. The WSJ article begins: President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies, advisers say, an approach that...

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10 Nov

In his recent post, Julian wrote that the secret U.S. military raids in Syria, Pakistan, and other countries may be (in his view) easily justifiable under U.S. law, but that the issue of legality is much harder to answer as a matter of international law - indeed, it would have to be some theory of preemptive self-defense. Expect to see denunciations...

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10 Nov

Critics of the U.S. war on terrorism often deride it as a bad metaphor or an excuse to conduct controversial detentions, interrogations and military trials.  But what the Pentagon refers to as the "Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT) has many of the characteristics of a typical armed conflict, even outside of the main battlefield in Afghanistan.  As the NYT reports: The...

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08 Nov

Amidst all the global celebration regarding the election of Barack Obama there is stark news that Moscow is emerging as a serious resurgent threat to the United States. Within hours of Obama's election Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the redeployment of missiles on the Polish border. A few United States papers are covering the story, but this report...

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06 Nov

While Peggy, Peter and Ken have provided more overarching views of the impact of Obama's election and his coming presidency, those readers ready to get into the weeds of what Obama will do when it comes to international law should check out his responses to an ASIL survey done back when the primaries were still in full swing.  You can access...

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04 Nov

The New York Times ran a front page story from its lead Guantanamo reporter yesterday.   (William Glaberson and Margot Williams, research assistance Andrei Scheinkman, "Next President Will Face Test on Detainees: Some at Guantanamo Called Serious Risks," NYT, Monday, November 3, 2008 (behind reg. user wall), A1; plus a referenced data base of detainees used to analyze the detainee...

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04 Nov

I’m with Chris – hard to focus today on anything other than the presidential election. (Indeed, I’m at pains to tear my eyes away from Ben Smith’s blog over at Politico, which is keeping anecdotal tabs on voter turnout here in the United States. His latest post as of 11:57am EST: “The Obama aide who told me last night that...

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