Hard National Security Choices
Support Friday, November 27, 2020
Menu

Stewart Baker

sbaker's picture

Stewart A. Baker is a partner in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP. He returned to the firm following 3½ years at the Department of Homeland Security as its first Assistant Secretary for Policy. He earlier served as general counsel of the National Security Agency.

Subscribe to this Lawfare contributor via RSS.

The Cyberlaw Podcast

The Cyberlaw Podcast: The Privacy and Europocrisy Oversight Board

Stewart Baker   Tue, Nov 24, 2020, 9:05 AM

This is my favorite story of the episode. David Kris covers a report from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on the enormous value that European governments get in fighting terrorism from the same American surveillance programs that European institutions have been fighting for twenty years to shut down. It’s a delightful takedown of European virtue-signaling, and I hope the Biden Administration gives the PCLOB a new name and mission in honor of the report.

The Cyberlaw Podcast

The Cyberlaw Podcast: Trump’s Multiple Re-Entry China Policy Vehicles

Stewart Baker   Tue, Nov 17, 2020, 9:16 AM

Another week, another Trump administration initiative to hasten the decoupling from China. As with MIRV warheads, the theory seems to be that the next administration can’t shoot them all down. Brian Egan lays out this week’s initiative, which lifts from obscurity a DoD list of Chinese military companies and excludes them from U.S. capital markets.

The Cyberlaw Podcast

The Cyberlaw Podcast: Could Kim Jong Un Kill 90% of All Americans Today?

Stewart Baker   Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 10:19 AM

This episode’s interview with Dr. Peter Pry of the EMP Commission raises an awkward question: Is it possible that North Korea has already developed nuclear weapons that could cause the deaths of hundreds of millions of Americans by permanently frying the entire electrical infrastructure with a single high-altitude blast? And if he doesn’t, could the sun accomplish pretty much the same thing? The common factor in both scenarios is EMP—electro-magnetic pulse. And we explore the problem in detail, from the capabilities of adversaries to the controversy that has pitted Dr.