The Lawfare Podcast

This week, Benjamin Wittes spoke at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas on his and Gabriella Blum's new book,  The Future of Violence . Robert Chesney introduces Wittes in what turns into a lively discussion with an engaged audience.    Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A few weeks ago, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken  visited Brookings for a public address  on the current priorities and future prospects for U.S. engagement in Central Asia. With the draw-down in Afghanistan on the horizon, Mr. Blinken makes clear that the United States is not relinquishing its interests in the region. Blinken stresses that the security of the United States is enhanced by...

When Oula Abdulhamid Alrifai was nearly 19, her family fled Damascus for Washington under death threats from the Bashar Assad regime. Since she left, she has watched as her country has fallen apart.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With a tenuous ceasefire holding in Ukraine, we asked  Fiona Hill  onto the show to discuss the man behind the unrest: Vladimir Putin. Fiona is the co-author of  Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin , and a  Senior Fellow and Director of the  Center on the United States and Europe  at Brookings. On the  Lawfare  Podcast, Fiona tackles the hard questions about Putin. Who exactly is he? What does he...

This week,  Brookings hosted a book launch  with  Jessica Stern  and co-author Brookings Fellow  J.M. Berger  for their new book,  ISIS: The State of Terror . The panel, which also featured  Brookings Fellow William McCants , details ISIS’s strategies and techniques--its unprecedented mix of brutality, media savvy, territorial gain, and recruitment. The authors also outline their recommendations f...

This week, we invited Major General Michael Lehnert (Ret.), the first commander of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, onto the show. In January 2002, General Lehnert deployed to Guantanamo Bay as Commander of Joint Task Force 160 with the mission to construct and operate the detention facilities for Taliban and Al Qaeda Detainees. He is now one of the most prominent voices callin...

This week, Brookings hosted a book launch with Harvard Law Professor Gabriella Blum and co-author Benjamin Wittes for their new book, The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones—Confronting a New Age of Threat . The panel, which also featured Senior Fellow William Galston and the ACLU’s Ben Wizner, explored the book’s themes surrounding the potential dangers of modern technology i...

This week, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a controversial address to a joint session of Congress over US President Barack Obama's objections. The speech, repeatedly interrupted by thunderous applause focused heavily on the nature of the developing nuclear accord between the P5+1 and Iran, and insisted a better deal was possible. The speech was also heavily colored by its prox...

On Thursday of this week, Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes and Bobby Chesney, along with General Jack Keane, appeared before the House Armed Services Committee to provide “Outside Perspectives on the President’s Proposed Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).” It’s an in-depth hearing that delves extensively into the President’s proposed AUMF,...

In mid-September, Benjamin Wittes, Editor-in-Chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, delivered a keynote address on Constitution Day at the National Security Agency. We are pleased to now be able to provide that speech in full. That’s right - it took this long for an unclassified speech, from someone without a security clearance, to pass through the declassification proc...

A few weeks ago, Shane Harris and Benjamin Wittes spoke at  Washington and Lee School of Law’s symposium  on Cyber-surveillance in the Post-Snowden Age. Shane and Ben are familiar names to frequent Lawfare readers, no doubt. Ben is the editor-in-chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution;  Shane  is senior correspondent at the Daily Beast and author of  @War: The Rise of the...

This week, Robert S. Litt, General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence gave a keynote speech at the Brookigns Institution on US Intelligence Community Surveillance One Year after President Obama’s Address. In his address, Litt discusses the progress the Administration and the IC has made in carrying out Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive, or PPD-28. He outlines the le...

General Michael Hayden, former Director of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, gave the keynote address ast weekend at Washington and Lee School of Law's symposium on Cyber-surveillance in the Post-Snowden Age. During his address, General Hayden outlined an unapologetic defense of the NSA’s recently revealed activities, yet remained candid about where the agency...

With President Barack Obama on his way to India early next week, we asked Tanvi Madan, Fellow and Director of the India Project here at Brookings, onto the show to preview Obama’s trip and discuss what we can expect from the President’s second India summit in less than four months. It’s a trip that comes with much fanfare: it's the first time that an American president has been invited as chief gu...

This week, Ben and Matt Waxman sat down with  Daniel Reisner , former head of the International Law Branch of the Israeli Defense Forces and current partner with Herzog, Fox and Neeman. Reisner also served as a senior member of Israel’s peace delegations, participating in all negotiation sessions and summits including those at Camp David. He continues to advise senior members of the Israeli govern...

This week, Ben and Jack sat down in sunny Palo Alto to discuss what we know about the Sony Pictures cyber-attack, the FBI’s response, and the lingering questions about the credibility of the US government’s claim that North Korea was behind the attack. They explore the tradeoffs inherent in explaining or proving the governments attribution claims, and whether or not the FBI should do so if it will...

This week, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller gave a keynote address at Brookings on US Nuclear Arms Control Policy. In her address, Gottemoeller discussed how the administration is adjusting to the slowed progress of arms control given the far less conducive atmosphere left in the wake of the Ukraine-Russia crisis. After beginning with such high...

Mieke Eoyang of Third Way discusses her provocative recent proposal on Lawfare for making the FISA Amendments Act the exclusive means by which the NSA can acquire content against overseas non-US persons from U.S. tech companies. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brookings scholar Nathan Sachs discusses the Byzantine politics of the Israeli government, the fall of the latest government of Binyamin Netanyahu, and the coming Israeli elections. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The ACLU's Jameel Jaffer, ODNI General Counsel Robert Litt, and Syracuse Law's William Banks debate FISA. Laura Donohue of Georgetown law school moderate at the ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security's 24 Annual Review of the Field of National Security Law. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our one hundredth episode of the podcast, Shane Harris of the Daily Beast  talks about his new book, @War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jack Goldsmith speaks at the Hoover Institutions Fall 2014 retreat on "President Obama's War Powers Legacy." Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ACLU technologies Chris Soghoian takes on James Comey's proposal for preserving law enforcement access to smartphones. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Wednesday, a panel of the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in Al Bahlul v. United States, a long running---and potentially quite consequential---appeal concerning Congress's power to subject domestic law crimes to trial before Guantanamo military commissions. Shortly after argument,  Lawfare's  Wells Bennett and Steve Vladeck joined Kevin Jon Heller for some post-argument analysis.   Support th...

Issues of privacy and security are at the forefront of public debate, particularly in light of recent national security disclosures and increasingly pernicious cyber attacks that target our personal information, our ideas, our money, and our secrets. But are privacy rights trumping public safety interests?  And if so, at what cost?  Has the post-Snowden pendulum swung too far in one direction?  On...