John B. Bellinger III is a partner in the international and national security law practices at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP in Washington, DC. He is also Adjunct Senior Fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as The Legal Adviser for the Department of State from 2005–2009, as Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council at the White House from 2001–2005, and as Counsel for National Security Matters in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice from 1997–2001.
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50 former national security officials argued in August 2016 Donald Trump “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being."
Bush personally enjoyed the affection, respect and trust of his counterparts. But he also selected and was advised by perhaps the strongest and most stable national security team in American history.
The U.S. decision to withdraw from the Treaty of Amity is a prudent, though regrettable, response to Iran's abuse of the treaty. But the withdrawal from the 1961 Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is an overreaction.
The U.S.-ICC dispute cries out for a diplomatic resolution.
In case you missed it, or missed Benjamin Wittes’s subsequent tweet commending it, former attorney general Dick Thornburgh had an important op-ed in the Washington Post last week—headlined “We Republicans Must All Speak out to Protect the Mueller Investigation”—in which he defends Bob Mueller, his investiga
When the United States uses military force, especially under controversial circumstances, it should explain the legal basis for its actions.
I have joined a brief (drafted by Harold Koh and others) of 52 former senior national security officials who argue that the travel ban would damage, not advance, U.S. foreign policy and national security interests.