National Security Law Brief

The NY Times reports that, in the face of mounting criticism from seven former C.I.A. directors, the Justice Department has narrowed its probe into detainee abuse by the C.I.A. down to only a few cases.

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The NY Times reports that the Obama Administration’s special Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, is attempting to get Israel to stop all current settlement building on the West bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thus far resisted the suspension of current projects, but has agreed not to begin any settlements in the future. The Obama Administration might to looking to bring the Israeli and Palestinian leaders together at the UN meeting in New York next week.

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BBC News reports that a UN report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that ended at the beginning of 2009, concludes that there is evidence that war crimes were committed on both sides. The report cites Israel’s collective punishment of Gazans, and other actions amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Reuters reports on a home that was searched in Queens, New York after police obtained an emergency warrant to conduct the raid on the home of an individual whom the police have being conducting surveillance on after he met with a group of people over the weekend.

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The NYTimes reviews Nicholas Thompson’s new book “The Hawk and the Dove,” a biography on two of the most famous foreign policy makers in the United States; George Kennan, the architect of containment strategy, and Paul Nitze, who shaped the containment policy throughout of the 20th century.

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Five years removed from the Orange Revolution (or U.S.-backed coup if you’re Vladimir Putin), with an election approaching in January, and a president who almost surely will not be re-elected, Ukraine is once again faced with belligerent talk from Moscow. The strong rhetoric ranges from accusations of Ukrainian soldiers killing Russian troops in Georgia, to President Dimitry Medvedev’s address to Kiev featuring a war ship-filled background. Is Russia really threatening military action in an attempt to bring “Little Russia” back into its sphere of influence, or merely trying to coerce Ukraine’s future leadership with Russian interests?

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It is now a truism to acknowledge September 11^th, 2001 as a turning point in American foreign affairs and security policy. The ensuing legislative and policy responses – the Patriot Act, the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, and military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, to name a few – have generated much debate. Some may say that this debate has yielded more heat than light. However, the debate over national security policy and law in the wake of the September 11^th attacks highlights an important consensus: now, more than ever, the United States can ill afford to ignore and isolate itself from world affairs. And it certainly cannot do so while retaining security policies steeped in Cold War paradigms.

In academia, this debate has not yielded many student-generated law publications. Currently, there is only one law school journal devoted to the field of national security law – the Journal of National Security Law & Policy at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California. (By highlighting our colleagues at McGeorge, we only bemoan the lack of similar publications nationwide. We wish to acknowledge this journal’s academic leadership.) More generally, other institutions have centers or programs devoted to this field, rather than journals. After two terms of Bush’s national security presidency, we feel that it is time for American law students of all backgrounds to broaden the contribution to this field.

At American University’s Washington College of Law, many of our colleagues and professors are distinctly oriented toward public service. A national security publication that is largely student-run serves as an outlet for this civic inclination. The founding members of our brief – liberals, conservatives, libertarians, and independents – bring a beneficial diversity of perspective, all while sharing the same interest in our nation’s security. Through vigorous debate and legal scholarship, we hope to lend to the continued study and innovation of counterterrorism, border security, cyber security, and intelligence reform, among other areas. In this way, we hope that our brief will further galvanize a new generation’s involvement in the protection of America.

-The Editors of the AU Nat’l Security Law Brief

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