The Insiders Know How Covert Foreign Malign Influence Works. You Should Too.
Americans are the targets of covert foreign malign influence. Helping them understand how it works should be part of how we defend the country.
The Unhidden Hand
How Russia’s Greatest Returns From 2016 Came From the President It Helped Elect
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Technology, War, and the Limits of Innovation Power in the Middle East
Israel and Iran, in different ways, have each used innovation power to win on the battlefield. But neither has won the war.
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The Immigration Enforcement Hydra Without a Kill Switch
Automated immigration enforcement sidesteps institutional accountability and does so with no kill switch.
Who, If Anyone, Should Have a License to Kill AI?
Lawmakers want AI kill switches, but who pulls the trigger, what it shuts off, and when it’s justified remain dangerously unclear.
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Trump’s Golf Course: A Hearing Diary for Oct. 19
A live-blog of an evidentiary hearing before Judge Reyes relating to the redesign of a historic municipal golf course.
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Donate today!Highlights
-
The Insiders Know How Covert Foreign Malign Influence Works. You Should Too.
Americans are the targets of covert foreign malign influence. Helping them understand how it works should be part of how we defend the country. -
The Unhidden Hand
How Russia’s Greatest Returns From 2016 Came From the President It Helped Elect -
Technology, War, and the Limits of Innovation Power in the Middle East
Israel and Iran, in different ways, have each used innovation power to win on the battlefield. But neither has won the war. -
The Immigration Enforcement Hydra Without a Kill Switch
Automated immigration enforcement sidesteps institutional accountability and does so with no kill switch. -
Who, If Anyone, Should Have a License to Kill AI?
Lawmakers want AI kill switches, but who pulls the trigger, what it shuts off, and when it’s justified remain dangerously unclear. -
Trump’s Golf Course: A Hearing Diary for Oct. 19
A live-blog of an evidentiary hearing before Judge Reyes relating to the redesign of a historic municipal golf course. -
Will the Supreme Court Finally Dismantle Bivens’s House of Cards?
For the sake of federal accountability, these Justice Department alums certainly hope so. -
The EU AI Act Mandates AI Incident Reporting—If We’re Lucky
How the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident was reportable under the EU AI Act, but future incidents may not be. -
Proposed Rules for the Use of Force at or Near Election Sites
Placing troops at the polls is illegal, but steps can be taken to secure the spirit of the law if not the letter. -
The Rising Islamic State Threat to Europe and the West
The Islamic State’s North African affiliate is building a logistical corridor from the Sahel to Spain. -
The Week That Was
Your weekly summary of everything on the site. -
Russia's Digital Detox Boomerang
The latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, now on Lawfare. -
Gaps in the Deep: How the Law of the Sea Fails the Undersea Kingdom
A review of Elisabeth Braw, “Undersea War: The Battle to Control the Cables and Pipelines That Connect Our World” (Public Affairs, 2026). -
Dissecting Trump’s Deal for Russian Diesel
There is more smoke than fire to the deal—except when it comes to Ukraine. -
Why Anthropic Is Asking for a Rehearing En Banc
The D.C. Circuit relied on a dictionary for key parts of its ruling against Anthropic. Congress’s own words tell a different story about the threats the law was designed to address.
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Featured Podcast
Live Coverage
For real-time updates of Lawfare’s coverage of the Trump administration’s legal challenges, follow on Bluesky or below:
What's Old Is New Again
With every new administration comes new promises and new actions on national security. But what’s “new” has often been proposed or even tried before—which means there’s a good chance Lawfare has already analyzed some of the legal and policy implications they present. So we’re making that past content readily accessible as it becomes newly relevant.
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What Does the 60-Day Rule Require?
It’s past time for the Justice Department to respond to the inspector general’s 2018 request to clarify the meaning of the 60-day rule on electoral interference. -
The Trump Admin’s Embrace of Ideological Exclusion and Deportation
The targets, rhetoric, and legal justifications of ideological exclusion and deportation may change over time, but the motivation—suppressing dissent—remains the same. -
What to Make of the Justice Department’s Denaturalization Initiative
The policy will terrify some naturalized citizens without cause and may dissuade others from naturalizing or coming to the United States in the first place.
Documents
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White House Releases Executive Order Declaring a National Emergency Regarding the Electrical Grid
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White House Releases National Security Science & Technology Strategy
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Justice Department Releases Opinion on Military Arrests Near Borders
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White House Releases Executive Orders on Quantum Computing
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White House Releases Executive Order on AI
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Former Cuban President Raúl Castro Indicted
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Trump Administration Releases 2026 Counterterrorism Strategy
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Southern Poverty Law Center Indicted on Federal Fraud Charges
The Lawfare Podcast 
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Lawfare Daily: AI, Child Safety, and the Law
Does existing federal criminal law apply to AI-generated child sexual abuse material? -
Lawfare Daily: Investigating AI Cyber Risks, with Asad Ramzanali
How will AI driven cybersecurity incidents be monitored and assessed? -
Lawfare Daily: The Coming Winter and the Latest Betrayal of Ukraine
Discussing the reported breaks in intelligence sharing and in Ukrainian access to Starlink.
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Lawfare Live: The Trials of the Trump Administration, October 23
Join the Lawfare team at 4 pm ET for a discussion of the litigation surrounding the Trump administration.
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