Swedish Chief of Defence General Micael Bydén with Chair of the NATO Military Committee Admiral Rob Bauer at Exercise Vigilant Knife. (NATO, https://flic.kr/p/2nJJF48; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/) Contrary to widespread belief, Sweden has not been neutral since at least its…
Tag: LAWFARE
Oral Argument Preview: United States v. Turkiye Halk Bankasi S.A. (Halkbank)
The U.S. Supreme Court (Sunira Moses, https://tinyurl.com/j7xajhuv; CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en) On Jan.17, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in United States v. Turkiye Halk Bankasi S.A. (Halkbank), a case that brings criminal charges against a Turkish bank for…
Who Are You Calling a Great Power?
President Joe Biden meets with other G7 leaders during a meeting at Schloss Elmau in Krün, Germany, on June 26, 2022. Photo credit: Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz via Flickr/Public Domain. Editor’s Note: The United States is in…
Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States, Part 2: What to Do If the FSIA Does Not Apply?
United States Supreme Court Building in Washington D.C. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Supreme_Court_of_the_U.S._Building.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en) This is the second of two articles analyzing the pending Supreme Court case, Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States, which is being argued on January 17.…
Could Beijing Risk a Diversionary War Against Taiwan?
Seaman Xi Chan stands lookout as the guided-missile destroyer USS Barry transits the Taiwan Strait. (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign Samuel Hardgrove, https://flic.kr/p/2iTV5BF; CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) China’s deteriorating strategic situation and President Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power appears to…
Unpacking the Biden Special Counsel Announcement
Robert K. Hur (Patrick Siebert, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdgovpics/51173603522/in/photostream/; CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Attorney General Merrick Garland had no choice but to appoint a special counsel to handle whatever criminal matters may arise out of the presence of classified information in locations associated…
On Protecting the Undersea Cable System
Seabees remove corroded zinc anodes from an undersea cable. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnavy/28073762161) Cables the size of a garden hose crisscross the oceans. Unlike your hose at home, these cables require all the protection afforded to other pieces of critical infrastructure, like the…
The EU’s AI Act Is Barreling Toward AI Standards That Do Not Exist
(Jai79, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:European_Commission_in_Brussels.jpg; CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) Efforts to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) must aim to balance protecting the health, safety, and fundamental rights of individuals while reaping the benefits of innovation. These regulations will protect people from physical harms (like AI…
Can You Spot the Difference Between Jan. 6 and Jan. 8?
Former President Jair Bolsonaro (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jair_Bolsonaro_paz_e_amor.jpg) Anyone watching Sunday’s failed coup attempt in Brazil’s capital city of Brasília would be forgiven for feeling a bit of déjà vu. Just two days after television networks aired scenes of rioters storming the U.S.…
Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States, Part 1: The FSIA and Criminal Prosecutions
U.S. Supreme Court Building (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panorama_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_Building_at_Dusk.jpg) On Jan. 17, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States, a case that raises the question whether the U.S. government can criminally prosecute corporations owned by foreign…
Proud Boys Trial Diary
Among the more than 940 federal criminal prosecutions arising from the Jan. 6 insurrection to date, the seditious conspiracy trial of five top members of the Proud Boys organization could well be the most important and informative of all. Accordingly, I…
Gentlemen’s Rules for Reading Each Other’s Mail: The New OECD Principles on Government Access to Personal Data Held by Private Sector Entities
OECD Conference Centre main entrance. Paris, France. (OECD/Michael Dean, https://flic.kr/p/9Yiczj; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/) In 1928, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson famously shut down an intelligence program that deciphered encrypted international cables, indignantly proclaiming that “a gentleman doesn’t read…
Was the Iraq War a Foreseeable Blunder?
President George W. Bush. (Official U.S. Government photo by Eric Draper/The U.S. National Archives) A review of Melvyn P. Leffler, “Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq” (Oxford University Press, 2023) *** Why did the United…
International Law of the Sea Meets Israeli Constitutional Law: The New Israeli-Lebanese Maritime Border Agreement
Inside the Supreme Court of Israel, Jerusalem. (Source: Anthony Baratier, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) On Dec. 13, 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court published a 51-page judgment in Kohelet Forum v. Prime Minister, providing reasons for its Oct.…
One Small Legislative Step for Cybersecurity
Department of Health & Human Services, Washington, D.C. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Department_of_Health_%26_Human_Services_-_Sarah_Stierch.jpg) The massive appropriations bill signed by President Biden on Dec. 29, 2022, included, among other riders, language requiring the makers of internet-connected medical devices to reasonably ensure that such devices and…
The Cyber Liability Fight Begins
Colonial Pipeline Gas Terminal (https://www.flickr.com/photos/orbitaljoe/16538597) Third-party liability for cybersecurity failures just got a lot more real. For years, observers of cybersecurity practices have noted a systematic underinvestment in cybersecurity by various enterprises. Critical to explaining that gap was the twofold…
The Lawfare Podcast: A January 6 Anniversary
It’s January 6—the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection. There has been a lot of activity in those two years to account for what happened on that terrible day. To go over it all, Lawfare editor in chief Benjamin Wittes sat…
Hundreds of Scandalous Videos, Shocking Interviews, and Hot Documents!
The Jan. 6 Committee. (Official U.S. government photo by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol) Now that we’ve got your attention… After nearly 18 months of hearings and investigations, the House Select…
Wargames Can’t Tell Us How to Deter a Chinese Attack on Taiwan—But Different Games Might
A reconstruction of a Prussian military wargame (kriegsspie). (Matthew Kirschenbaum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kriegsspiel_1824.jpg; CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en) Wargames that simulate combat between the United States and China near Taiwan can provide useful insight about potential military challenges. However, analysts should be wary…
CIA, Congress, and the Art of Listening with Abigail Spanberger
Abigail Spanberger, who represents Virginia’s 7th congressional district in the House of Representatives, is one of the few members of Congress to have served as an operations officer at the Central Intelligence Agency. She also worked in law enforcement as…
The Aftermath, Episode 5: Who Tells Your Story?
We’re pleased to bring you a new episode of The Aftermath, our narrative podcast series on the search for accountability in response to the Jan. 6 insurrection: This episode—our fifth—explores another aspect of Congress’s response to Jan. 6: efforts to…
“No Ordinary Pakistani”: The Intertwined Stories of Saifullah and Uzair Paracha
A watchtower at the famous Guantanamo Bay prison camp, at dusk, January 2011. (Source: Gino Reyes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) Bald, bespectacled, and bearded—the image of a beaming Saifullah Paracha sitting at a table at McDonald’s in Karachi, Pakistan,…
How to End Wars: Lawyering Peace in a Changing World
British Vickers machine gun crew during the Battle of Menin Road Ridge, World War I (Ypres Salient, West Flanders, Belgium). (Source: Ernest Brooks, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.) A review of Paul Williams, “Lawyering Peace” (Cambridge University Press, 2021) ***…
In Addressing Russia’s Attacks on Zaporizhzhia, Look to Africa
The IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya arrives at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine. (IAEA, https://www.flickr.com/photos/35068899@N03/52329096480/; CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are shocking and dangerous. Since March, Russia has seized…
A French Perspective on Elon Musk’s Twitter
Elon Musk (https://csmapnyu.org/news-views/news/how-to-evaluate-elon-musk-s-potential-impact-on-twitter) A lot has happened since Elon Musk made a sensational entrance in Twitter headquarters by carrying a sink. As soon as Musk took control of Twitter on Oct. 28, he fired a large part of the compa…
New Data Quantifies Ransomware Attacks on Healthcare Providers
CommonSpirit Health (Photo Credit: CommonSpirit Health) On a Sunday in early October, CommonSpirit Health, the second-largest hospital chain in the U.S., detected unusual activity on its network. What turned out to be a ransomware attack forced many of CommonSpirit’s more-than…