Latest in Trump
A recent U.S. News article on “‘Areas of Active Hostilities’: Trump’s Troubling Increases to Obama’s Wars" correctly identifies what could be a very important policy problem, but confuses the issue by focusing on the legal dimension.
I thought a brief backgrounder on the power of the President to appoint and to remove the FBI Director might be in order this morning.
A handy FAQ-style overview of the easily-confused issues associated with the surveillance side of the controversy surrounding HPSCI Chair Devin Nunes.
The indispensable Charlie Savage has just posted the latest iteration of the Trump Administration’s planned Executive Order on detention issues, along with an article placing that draft in context (including helpful insights from Jack Goldsmith and Ryan Goodman).
Still no music, but Steve Vladeck and I have posted Episode 2 of our new National Security Law Podcast, “If You Thought That Last Executive Order Was Controversial…”
In it, we discuss President Trump’s new Executive Order on immigration, last weekend’s use of military force in Yemen, and . . . our predictions for the Super Bowl and President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court (we recorded yesterday afternoon; Steve's predictions are better than mine, it turns out).
What the ground operation conducted by SEAL Team Six in Yemen this weekend can tell us about the Trump administration's legal and policy approach to counterterrorism going forward.
Water Wars is a weekly roundup of the latest news, analysis, and opinions related to ongoing tensions in the South and East China Seas.
Over at War on the Rocks, I have a post explaining that a new statute will be needed in order for General Mattis to serve as Secretary of Defense. It's been done once before, with George Marshall during the Truman Administration.
In a prior post I discussed the Trump administration's apparent interest in reviving waterboarding as an interrogation method, noted that a federal statute forbids resort to any interrogation method not listed in the relevant Army Field Manual, and explained that the Trump administration might try to overcome that barrier by pushing to have the manual amended to include a classified annex authorizing waterboarding.
The Trump administration should use the post-human rights era as an opportunity to promote a different international law agenda: building a strong core of international law dedicated to protecting international peace and security.