National Security Law Commons^™

April Roundtable: Genocide And Us National Interests Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“How Genocide Became a National Security Threat” by Michael Abramowitz & Lawrence Woocher. Foreign Policy. February 26, 2010.

Do Drones Have A Silver Lining?, David Akerson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher’s article, “How Genocide Became a National Security Threat,” flags an important milestone in American foreign policy, namely that mass atrocities might now be appropriately viewed as the national security threats that they are. The problem with translating this policy development into action is the next and not insignificant challenge. Aerial drones may be key to overcoming it.

Genocide Myopia: How Reframing Mass Atrocity Could Backfire, Sonia Cardenas

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The United States has long viewed genocide and mass atrocity as tragic, moral problems divorced from national interests. This may be changing under the Obama administration, with genocide and mass atrocity being reframed as problems to be solved pragmatically. Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher celebrate this “unprecedented breakthrough” in Foreign Policy, urging President Obama to follow up with specific measures: strategic military planning, interagency coordination, firm leadership, and concrete action on Darfur. Despite the promise of overcoming inaction and focusing on prevention, the new vision of genocide and mass atrocity Abramowitz and Woocher depict remains myopic. It is narrowly focused …

A Break From The Old Routine...., Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Abramowitz and Woocher highlight a potentially significant shift in policy discourse in international relations with respect to humanitarianism and the prevention of genocide. For many years, the United States has suffered from the twin problems of the human rights “double standard” and “Catch-22.” On the one hand, particular countries have been seen as vital by the United States for intervention on humanitarian grounds even though many believed other geostrategic interests are at stake (e.g. Kosovo in 1999) and others have not (e.g. Rwanda in 1994). On the other hand, US intervention on humanitarian grounds can be criticized as heavy-handed or …

On Genocide And The National Interest, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the second presidential debate, Barack Obama said, in response to a question about the crisis in Darfur, that “when genocide is happening, when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us. And so I do believe that we have to consider it as part of our interests, our national interests, in intervening where possible.” In a similar vein, Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher highlight how genocide is increasingly being seen as a security threat by the White House.

Citizenship Perception Strain In Cases Of Crime And War: On Law And Intuition, Mary De Ming Fan

Articles

The jurisprudence on crime and war has repeatedly indicated that citizenship matters in determining the scope and applicability of constitutional protections. Just how citizenship matters and what vision of the citizen controls have been murky, however. A rich literature has developed deploring how the nation and the jurisprudence have appeared to slip beneath the baseline of protections when faced with formal citizens who challenge our popular notions about what citizens look like, feel like, and do. What warrants further examination is why this may be so. Understanding the processes that may blur the doctrine and lead to slippage in citizenship …

National Security Surveillance In An Age Of Terror: Statutory Powers & Charter Limits, Steven Penney

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The communications surveillance powers granted to Canada's national security agencies have rarely resulted in prosecution and, as a result, have been subject to very little judicial, academic, or public scrutiny. However, as the state increasingly seeks to prosecute alleged terrorists, courts will have to interpret the scope of these powers and decide whether they violate section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter). A review of the powers granted to police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) reveals two constitutional infirmities: allowing police to conduct communications surveillance in terrorism …

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World - Still A Chilling Vision After All These Years, Bob Barr

Michigan Law Review

In Part I of this Review, I provide an overview of Brave New World and place it in its proper historical context. In Part II, I explore the parallels between Huxley's World State and post-9/11 America. In Part III, I argue that Brave New World provides prescient warning signs about the dangers of excessive government interference in the economy-warning signs that are of particular importance in the face of the recent economic crisis.

Missing In Action: Prisoners Of War At Guantanamo Bay, Jerica M. Morris-Frazier

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The United States of America has presented a national and international image of fairness, justice, and humane treatment of others, while abiding by the laws to which it is bound. However, the reputation of the United States has been tarnished by its seemingly prolonged internment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. After reports of torture, sexual degradation, and the refusal to apply prisoner of war status to any of the detainees the world is looking to the United States for answers and demanding changes to the current situation at Guantanamo Bay. This paper focuses on the lack of application of prisoner …

Rhetoric To Reality: Citizenship Delays And U.S. International Obligations In The Post-9/11 Landscape, Clifford Ashcroft-Smith

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Energy Independence And Climate Change: The Economic And National Security Consequences Of Failing To Act, Mark E. Rosen

University of Richmond Law Review

This article draws heavily from the works of the CNA MAB, namely the twin and interrelated challenges arising from imprudent reliance on fossil fuels by developed and developing countries, as well as the serious environmental and national security"externalities" that directly result from current consumptive trends.

Torture And Public Policy: Mohamed V. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., Allows “Extraordinary Rendition” Victims To Litigate Around State Secrets Doctrine , Michael P. Jensen

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Undead" Wartime Cases: Stare Decisis And The Lessons Of History, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

References to the “lessons of history” are ubiquitous in law. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in recent debates over U.S. counterterrorism policy. In response to the Bush Administration’s reliance on World War II-era decisions - Johnson v. Eisentrager, Ex Parte Quirin, Hirota v. MacArthur, and In re Yamashita - opponents have argued that these decisions have been rejected by the “lessons of history.” They argue that the history of wartime cases is one marked by executive aggrandizement, panic-driven attacks on civil liberties, and overly quiescent courts - none of which should be repeated.

But what does it really …

Variance, Violence, And Democracy: A Basic Microeconomic Model Of Terrorism, John A. Sautter

Journal of Strategic Security

Much of the debate surrounding contemporary studies of terrorism focuses upon transnational terrorism. However, historical and contemporary evidence suggests that domestic terrorism is a more prevalent and pressing concern. A formal microeconomic model of terrorism is utilized here to understand acts of political violence in a domestic context within the domain of democratic governance.This article builds a very basic microeconomic model of terrorist decision making to hypothesize how a democratic government might influence the sorts of strategies that terrorists use. Mathematical models have been used to explain terrorist behavior in the past. However, the bulk of inquires in this area …

Global Risk Of Nuclear Terrorism, Emily Diez, Terrance Clark, Caroline Zaw-Mon

Journal of Strategic Security

The emergence of nuclear terrorism, a threat that President Obama called "the gravest danger we face," has signaled a paradigm shift in international security. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, sensitive nuclear technologies and materials have become increasingly available. Globalization and the inadequate enforcement of treaties and export controls have allowed the proliferation of nuclear weapons materials. Today, international terrorist organizations seek to employ weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as a means to influence national policies around the world. AlQaida spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith declared that in order to balance the injustices that have been inflicted on the Muslim …

Toward A New Trilateral Strategic Security Relationship: United States, Canada, And Mexico, Richard J. Kilroy, Jr., Abelardo Rodríguez Sumano, Todd S. Hataley

Journal of Strategic Security

The term "perimeter defense" has come back into vogue recently, with regard to security strategies for North America. The United States' concern primarily with the terrorist threat to its homeland subsequent to September 11, 2001 (9/11) is generating this discussion with its immediate neighbors of Mexico and Canada (and to some extent some Caribbean nations—the "third border"). The concept is simply that by pushing defenses out to the "perimeter" nations, then security will be enhanced, since the United States visions itself as more vulnerable to international terrorism than its neighbors. However, Canada and Mexico have not been very happy about …

Intelligence And Its Role In Protecting Against Terrorism, Richard J. Hughbank, Don Githens

Journal of Strategic Security

The art and science of gathering critical operational intelligence has been defined in many ways and is beyond our needs for this writing. Throughout the course of history, many wars have been fought depending heavily on various forms of intelligence. During our most recent actions in the War on Terror, intelligence analysis has played a critical role in both offensive and defensive operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. With such varying fact-finding techniques available and utilized in the defense of our country, it has become an arduous task to collect, decipher, package, prioritize, disseminate, and act upon everything that comes down …

Cover & Front Matter

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Timothy Hsia, Sheldon Greaves, Donald J. Goldstein

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Geographic Trajectories Of Al-Qaida And Taliban Terrorist Groups In Pakistan, Syed Manzar Abbas Zaidi

Journal of Strategic Security

Though Western analysts tend to mention al-Qaida and Taliban in Pakistan in the same context, the dynamics of their relationship are far more complex than a cursory examination would reveal. The context of this relationship is best understood within the overarching paradigm of militant activities of post 9/11 Taliban and al-Qaida remnants in Pakistan's tribal areas, where these groups flourish. The military struggle in Afghanistan has significantly influenced the formation of a loosely structured alQaida/Taliban "nexus" that was forged in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), particularly Waziristan. In order to survive the ongoing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military …

Strategic Asymmetric Deception And Its Role In The Current Threat Environment, Seth A. Gulsby

Journal of Strategic Security

President Bill Clinton's Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, once stated that the post-Cold War world of the 1990s was a "paradox [where] American military superiority actually increase[d] the threat of... attack against [the U.S.] by creating incentives for adversaries to challenge us asymmetrically." He was alluding to the fact that the Cold War's closure was supposed to bring about a situation that encouraged peace, nation-building, and unilateral comfort for the United States. The reality that America has come to know is quite different, and some might even argue that, given the option, many people would return to a security situation …

Moral And Legal Responsibility With Respect To Alleged Mistreatment Of Transferred Detainees In Afghanistan: Presentation To The House Of Commons Special Committee On The Canadian Mission In Afghanistan, Craig M. Scott

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

The present paper takes the form of presentation made on February 10, 2010, to the prorogued Canadian House of Commons Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan, with Members of Parliament from the Bloc Québécois, Liberal Party, and New Democratic Party in attendance. The subject of the presentation is a report and commentary on an all-day event organized by the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. The event, held in Toronto on February 8, 2010, was called the Special Forum on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan. The thematic title …

Responses To The Ten Questions, Robert Knowles

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Responses To The Ten Questions, Timothy Lynch

William Mitchell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Responses To The Ten Questions, Richard L. Russell

William Mitchell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Responses To The Ten Questions, Jeffrey Kahn

William Mitchell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Responses To The Ten Questions, Robert Knowles

William Mitchell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Responses To The Ten Questions, Mary Ellen O'Connell

William Mitchell Law Review

No abstract provided.

"If You Are Reading This, You Are Engaged And Aware": Serving The Diversity Of Interests In Blogs Written By Service Members, Peter Colwell

William Mitchell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Responses To The Ten Questions, Wayne Mccormack

William Mitchell Law Review

No abstract provided.