The Lawfare Podcast

Bruce Schneier of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School gave a keynote address on April 3, 2014 during the “National Security Agency at the Crossroads” conference at UT-Austin. He spoke about the challenges to maintaining privacy in the evolving digital environment and the big picture that has emerged from almost a year of NSA revelations. Support this show http://suppo...

This week, the University of Texas at Austin hosted a two day conference, "The National Security Agency at the Crossroads." Former NSA Deputy Director Chris Inglis gave an address; afterwards, Inglis joined Lawfare's Ben Wittes for a wide-ranging discussion about (among other things) the NSA's recent controversies, and proposals to reform its surveillance programs.   Support this show http://suppo...

John Carlin, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice, gave a keynote address on cybersecurity at American University’s Washington College of Law. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On March 19, the Brookings  Center on the United States and Europe  (CUSE) hosted NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen for a Statesman’s Forum address on the importance of the transatlantic alliance and how the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is evolving to address new common security challenges. As the crisis in Ukraine shows that security in the Euro-Atlantic area cannot be tak...

Shane Harris of Foreign Policy magazine sits down with Benjamin Wittes to discuss two major news events of the week: the CIA-SSCI flap and the back-and-forth between NSA and the courts over whether it can, may, or must retain telephony metadata past the five year deadline for its destruction. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inf...

Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and ACLU Chief Anthony Romero go mano a mano at a Federalist Society Event over Edward Snowden, metadata collection, standing in national security cases, and other thing--and find some surprising areas of agreement. Moderated by Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

Ten years after the Iraq War and five years after the global financial crisis, the state of the international order is decidedly mixed. The international system faces a new and increasingly complex set of challenges. While the past decade has seen some successes in international cooperation – most notably the response to the financial crisis – core questions remain about whether the established an...

On February 19, the  Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence  at the Brookings Institution hosted a panel discussion evaluating the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Framework. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conor Friedersdorf and Benjamin Wittes debate the ethics of drone warfare at the University of Richmond in November 2013. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A discussion at the Berkman Center: In the wake of the disclosures about government surveillance and the rise of corporate-run applications and protocols, is the idea of an “unowned” Internet still a credible one? The Berkman Center’s Jonathan Zittrain moderates a panel, incluing Yochai Benkler (Harvard Law School), Ebele Okobi (Yahoo!), Bruce Schneier (CO3 Systames), and Benjamin Wittes (Brooking...

DNI General Counsel Robert Litt talks about implementation of President Obama's NSA reforms, privacy rights for foreigners in espionage, spying on foreign heads of state, and amnesty for Edward Snowden. Help spread the word about the Lawfare Podcast: Please rate and review it on whatever podcast distribution system you use.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. S...

The Brookings Intelligence Project hosted Foreign Service Officer Yaniv Barzilai on January 23, 2014 to discuss his new book,  102 Days of War---How Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the Taliban Survived 2001 . Bruce Riedel moderated the discussion. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Obama delivered a  major address  this morning---and released an accompanying  policy directive ---in response to the  recommendations  of his surveillance review group. He announced limited reforms to the NSA's surveillance activities, defended the larger role and activities of the intelligence community, and suggested that limited privacy protections extend to non-Americans.  Lawfare  ...

Are there parallels between insurgencies and illness? Or between healthy bodies and healthy nations? Innovative new thinking argues that indeed there are. As understanding in various related disciplines grows, targeted responses are often able to alleviate at least some of the problems. On December 19, two Yale University professors, Stanley McChrystal (retired General, U.S. Army) and Kristina Tal...

In the final episode in our series, "Inside NSA: We Brought In a Recording Device So You Don't Have To," Benjamin Wittes interviews the agency's executive director--and now its acting deputy director--Fran Fleisch about openness and transparency in signals intelligence, the NSA's culture, and how the agency would respond to a major policy change from Congress. Support this show http://supporter.ac...

The U.S. technology sector is pretty upset with NSA these days. Anne Neuberger, who manages the agency's relations with the private sector, is on the front lines of this tense relationship. Bobby Chesney and Benjamin Wittes sat down with her to discuss encryption, industry calls to rein in spying, and the difficult place the Snowden disclosures have put industry in with respect to their many forei...

Bobby Chesney and Benjamin Wittes sit down with the head of IT at NSA and talk about how Edward Snowden did it, and what's being done to make sure the next Edward Snowden can't do it again. We talked about why NSA is different from other government agencies in technology development. And we talked about what would have happened had NSA built the health care web site.  Support this show http://supp...

In the second episode of our series, "Inside NSA: We Brought In a Recording Device So You Don't Have To," Robert Chesney and Benjamin Wittes talk to John DeLong, the agency's chief of compliance. They discuss the history and development of NSA's compliance program and whether the agency's problem is compliance with the rules--or whether it's the rules themselves. Support this show http://supporter...

The first episode in our series, "Inside NSA: We Brought in a Recording Device So You Don't Have To": An interview with NSA General Counsel Rajesh De. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After more than four decades of conflict, Colombia has made substantial progress under the Uribe and Santos administrations in combating drug trafficking and insurgents and demobilizing paramilitary groups. In recent years, Colombians have seen prosperity increase and reductions in violence in many parts of their county. Today, the Santos administration is engaged in a peace process with the FARC...

The exponential rate of change in the present global environment makes today’s security landscape particularly challenging, and projections promise that the challenges will only increase. In this complex and uncertain future, intelligence, cyber, Special Operations Forces and international partnerships will take on more prominent and critical roles in the nation’s defense and warfare for decades t...

In an panel discussion at NYU, a former White House Counsel, a former chief of staff to the CIA director and Secretary of Defense, a former FBI general counsel, and a former head of NCTC discuss law and lawyering and national security strategy. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the third and final installment of our series of sessions from the October 25 Hoover Media Colloquium, Jack goes mano a mano with the press corps on national security leaks and journalism.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matthew Waxman and Kenneth Anderson speak at the Hoover Institution on autonomous weapons before a group of journalists. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benjamin Wittes speaks on his and Kenneth Anderson's book, Speaking the Law, at an October 25 media colloquium at the Hoover Institution.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.