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Featured, Main Articles, Volume 17

The Generals’ Constitution In Extremis: Civil Rights, Civilian Supremacy, And A National Security Commitment “Most Severely Tested”

Dan Maurer*[This essay is available in PDF at this link] Abstract This article describes the legal confusion that surfaces when a senior military commander dissents from, disobeys, or more offensively defies an apparently lawful order from the commander-in-chief to use force in ways that might check, curb, frustrate, or violate the constitutional liberties of the domestic public. Relying on both hypothetical and historical examples in which the constitutional values of civilian control of the armed forces and domestic civil rights collide, this article suggests that routine reliance on traditional civil-military relations theory and the military’s own criminal law only sets the […]

Featured, Main Articles, Volume 17

Techno-Federalism: How Regulatory Fragmentation Shapes the U.S.-China AI Race

Jason Jia-Xi Wu*1[This essay is available in PDF at this link] Abstract The United States and China are engaged in a regulatory arms race over artificial intelligence (AI). Yet, existing debates often overlook a critical factor shaping this AI race: federalism, or the division of regulatory authority between central and local governments. In the United States, states lead in AI regulation, with the federal government taking a limited, backseat role. In China, although authority remains more centralized, local governments have played a pivotal role in implementing and experimenting with AI policies. While institutional differences remain, both countries exhibit signs of partial

Featured, Main Articles, Volume 17

“Violent, Vicious, and Fast”: LSCO Lawyering and the Transformation of American IHL

Naz Khatoon Modirzadeh*[This essay is available in PDF at this link] Abstract In this Article, I examine a phenomenon unfolding within the United States’s military legal establishment: an effort by a segment of military lawyers to define how the law of armed conflict (LOAC) applies to the wars they anticipate fighting in the future. At the heart of this project lies a reconfiguration of what I call American international humanitarian law (IHL): the United States’s distinctive assemblage of legal interpretations, operational practices, and normative commitments that shape its approach to the conduct of hostilities. While LSCO lawyering is often framed internally

Featured, Main Articles, Volume 17

Volume 17, Issue 1

Articles “Violent, Vicious, and Fast”: LSCO Lawyering and the Transformation of American IHL By Naz Khatoon Modirzadeh In this Article, I examine a phenomenon unfolding within the United States’s military legal establishment: an effort by a segment of military lawyers to define how the law of armed conflict (LOAC) applies to the wars they anticipate fighting in the future. I refer to this effort as LSCO lawyering: the development, advancement, and institutionalization of a vision of LOAC tailored to large-scale combat operations (LSCOs), understood here as multi-domain warfare against a peer adversary such as China. Drawing on doctrinal materials, planning

Featured, Main Articles, Volume 16

Volume 16, Issue 2

Articles Starving the Beast: A New Vetting Model to Prevent Corruption in International Security Sector Assistance By Nahal Kazemi In 2021, the United States government identified countering corruption as a core national security interest for the first time. However, corrupt police and military forces supported by the United States in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, actively undermine security and reveal a profound weakness in the previous administration’s strategic anti-corruption priorities. Where the recipient government lacks the will to combat corruption, traditional anti-corruption tools are ineffective. Experts on combating international corruption, from government, the academy, and civil society agree on

Online Edition

A Foreign Organ: Courts-Martial as an Alternative to the 9/11 Military Commissions

Benjamin Sonnenberg* [This essay is available in PDF at this link] Introduction Almost 3,000 Americans died on September 11, 2001.[1] In response to the disaster, and shortly following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, President Bush issued a Military Order pertaining to the “detention, treatment, and trial” of non-citizens in the War on Terror.[2] This Order established the modern system of military commissions at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (GTMO). The Order authorized trial by military tribunal for non-U.S. citizens who were members of Al-Qaeda or engaged in acts of international terrorism.[3] Almost immediately, the tribunals came under intense scrutiny because they provided defendants with few legal protections, especially in comparison to those provided by courts-martial.[4] Academics and politicians from across the spectrum raised moral and legal concerns.[5] The new system was not exposed to Congressional

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