One of the great benefits of democracy is that politics impacts policy, even national security policy. Elections, confirmation battles, and legislative fights all affect the way the United States balances its competing priorities, interests and values as it conducts foreign and security affairs. National security professionals would therefore be wise to keep an eye on what candidates are saying about national security matters, how they are faring in the polls, and on which way the winds in Congress seem to be blowing the national security issues of the day.
Latest in Politics & National Security
On Wednesday, USA Today hosted the first and only vice presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle, moderated by Susan Page.
While debates are often chaotic, Tuesday’s was particularly so. Although it is difficult to extract substantive highlights, we've tried to present exchanges that may be of interest to Lawfare readers. It won't be perfect, though we do hope it's helpful.
As always, these excerpts are organized both thematically and chronologically.
Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today denied former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s request to dismiss the government lawsuit filed against him regarding the publication of his book, “The Room Where it Happened.”
Reporting indicates that the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation, likely concerning possible publication of classified material in Bolton’s book. But bringing charges would be a politically charged endeavor fraught with legal risks.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs recently published the results from the third round of an annual poll, sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin’s Intelligence Studies Project, which aims to shed light on Americans’ perceptions of the intelligence community.
Lawfare’s Bobby Chesney and Matt Waxman have launched “The National Security Law Lectures”: a free series of lectures on an array of national security law topics.
New York’s attorney general goes after a political opponent.
If Joe Biden wins the November election, Americans will likely see a reversion to a more traditional approach to the presidency. What might that mean in the field of U.S. national security?
We’re using FOIA to find out if the intelligence community feels like it’s being pressured to reach certain conclusions—and, if so, how that’s impacting employee morale.
One year ago, the Trump administration announced that, for the first time in 23 years, the President would cease to suspend Title III of the Helms-Burton Act and would instead allow U.S. nationals to sue persons and companies that “traffic” in property expropriated by the Cuban government after the start of the Cuban Revolution. Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama had suspended Title III from 1996-2017, because they concluded that activation of the provision would produce a flood of complex lawsuits in U.S. courts and cause diplomatic friction with close allies.