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Why Declarations of War Matter

By Maj. Gen. Charles J. Dunlap, Jr., USAF (Ret.)* The Washington Post recently ran a story entitled “Would declaring ‘war’ on ISIS make victory more certain—or would it even matter?”[1] Among other things, it stated that today, “[m]ost legal scholars find a war declaration irrelevant.” Maybe so, but I’m not one of them. One scholar was quoted as saying that “[d]eclaring war does not serve any real function under modern international law, and it is not required as a matter of U.S. constitutional practice in order to wage war.” Another argued that a formal declaration of war (against the Islamic […]

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Partially Unwinding Sanctions: The Problematic Construct of Sanctions Relief in the JCPOA

By Sahand Moarefy By partially unwinding the sanctions regime against Iran, the United States has sought to achieve two goals: provide Iran some meaningful level of economic relief such that it carries through with its commitment to scale back its nuclear program, while preserving the U.S.’s architecture of sanctions that target Iran for non-nuclear reasons. Barring any additional actions by policymakers, this paper argues that the United States has unwound sanctions based on legal distinctions that make it unlikely that it can achieve these goals. The paper concludes by sketching possible solutions for U.S. policymakers.   INTRODUCTION On July 14,

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Religious Freedom as a National Security Imperative: A New Paradigm

This Article proffers a hitherto understated mechanism for the establishment, maintenance and cogent analysis of national security: the establishment and maintenance of religious pluralism. To date, official positions and scholarship sparingly comment on this assertion. To address these gaps and to offer a fresh perspective on this subject, this Article undertakes a legal analysis to buttress the notion that U.S. national security interests can be best served by working towards the establishment of religious pluralism around the globe. Due to its strategic relevance for U.S. national security, the case of Pakistan – and the constitutional and legal apparatus that undergirds its view of religious minorities – serves as a blueprint for understanding this new national security paradigm (“NNSP”).
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So You’re Telling Me There’s A Chance: How the Articles on State Responsibility Could Empower Corporate Responses to State-Sponsored Cyber Attacks

By Daniel Garrie and Shane R. Reeves[1] Click here to read the full text as a PDF. “[U.S] information systems face thousands of attacks a day from criminals, terrorist organizations, and more recently from more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations.”[2] Looking forward, if the pace and intensity of attacks increase and are not met with improved defenses, a backlash against digitization could occur, with large negative economic implications. Using MGI data on the technologies that will truly matter to business strategy during the coming decade, we estimate that over the next five to seven years, $9 trillion to $21 trillion

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The Historic Opening to China: What Hath Nixon Wrought?

When President Obama hosts Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House this week, he will do so as the eighth US president, starting with Richard Nixon, to engage with China based on a failed strategy. This article revisits a Foreign Affairs article—”Asia After Vietnam”—authored by Richard Nixon in October 1967.

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