I have a new book out today: Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency after 9/11.  It argues that constitutional checks and balances deeply constrain the national security presidency, and that th...

The more I think about Attorney General Holder's defense of targeted killings in his speech @ Northwestern last Monday--and the various reactions thereto--the more confused I become. To be sure, this con...

I recently noted Peter Berkowitz’s short piece on the legality of a military action against Iran.  Bruce Ackerman subsequently argued that such a strike “would be a violation of both international law an...

If you think it is disturbing to park next to a car with "Ebola" on the license plate, consider what I found parked behind my car last night when I came out from a restaurant: [caption id="attachment_63...

Well, it's the Sunday after the attorney general's address on targeted killing, so naturally, we awaken to a New York Times editorial blasting the speech: President Obama, who came to office promising tr...

The other day, I received the following email from Army Colonel Scott Malcom of United States Southern Command concerning an exchange of letters between the president of the American Bar Association and ...

Last month, Charlie Savage of the New York Times ran this story about an Afghan detainee at Guantanamo Bay by the name of Obaydullah--whose lawyers have made up this handy fact sheet.

Those who liked Lawfare graffiti (here and here) or my license plate (here and here) might find amusing this picture, taken on my street:

Note this passage in the coverage by the Times: The United States will retain custody of non-Afghan prisoners, about 50 mostly Al Qaeda militants from Pakistan, Arab countries and Central Asia, the Amer...

Does the announcement of a deal between Afghanistan and the United States regarding transfer of the DFIP (Detention Facility in Parwan) to Afghan control (see Ben's post below) herald a new Afghan positi...

The New York Times is reporting: The United States has agreed to hand over detainees to Afghan government control on a far more accelerated schedule than planned, a senior American official said on Frida...

House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member and Sen. Mark Udall have proposed a brief bill that would make two significant changes to the NDAA's detention provisions. The bill, a fact sheet about which...

Lt. Col. Darrel J. Vandeveld became a kind of cause celebre a few years back when he quit as a prosecutor in the military commission system over ethical concerns about the process, gave a declaration on ...

Peter Feaver has an insightful post at Shadow Government concerning yesterday's exchange between Secretary Panetta and Senator Sessions regarding the administration's position on whose authorization it m...

Published by Harvard University Press (2010) Reviewed by Alan G. Kaufman

In the ongoing debate over the use of lethal force against persons located outside Afghanistan, the suggestion is often made (both by supporters and critics of US government policies) that Afghanistan is...