The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

Amichai Cohen and Yuval Shany discussed Israel’s wartime decision-making bodies—the security cabinet and the newly formed war cabinet—and the political implications of the ambiguous relationship between the two.  

Adam Klein examined the legality of Hamas and Israeli actions in the war in Gaza as they relate to the deaths of civilians under the law of armed conflict.

Mark Lattimer evaluated the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) Oct. 31 strike on the Jabalia camp using international humanitarian law’s proportionality test to assess the IDF’s tolerance for civilian casualties in the war in Gaza.

In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Raphael S. Cohen discussed the analogizing of the Oct. 7 attack with 9/11, arguing that the resulting war in Gaza is strategically and operationally distinct from the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

Caleb Benjamin shared a lawsuit filed on behalf of Palestinian rights groups against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin alleging they failed to prevent genocide in Gaza in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Brian Fishman discussed the difficult choices facing platforms stemming from the conflict in Gaza—analyzing platform rulemaking, rule enforcement, and the useful tools from other industries available to platforms.

Alex Joel discussed the importance of private and secure cross-border data flows, the various actors affecting cross-border data flow policy, and the potential for a global data flows framework for democracies.  

Nigel Cory and Samm Sacks discussed the office of the United States Trade Representative’s recent decision to no longer support free cross-border data flows and its implications for global digital governance.

Justin Sherman, Hayley Barton, Aden Klein, Brady Allen Kruse, and Anushka Srinivasan examined data brokers’ practice of selling data about U.S. servicemembers and veterans. They argued that to mitigate the national security risks the practice creates, Congress must pass a comprehensive privacy law and adopt focused national security controls.

On the Lawfare Podcast, Stephanie Pell sat down with Sherman, Barton, and Kruse to discuss their piece:

On the Lawfare Podcast, Katherine Pompilio sat down with Aimee Nishimura to discuss her recent piece in Lawfare, “Human Subjects Protection in the Era of Deepfakes.” They discussed the significant dangers posed by deepfakes, how the Defense Department can support the protection of human subjects in its research on the technology, and more:

Tom Johansmeyer argued that insurers must overcome their “unrealistic” fears of cyberwar and increase the amount of cyber insurance they provide to create greater economic security for businesses and society as a whole.

In the latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren discussed ransomware gang LockBit’s attack on the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, how U.S. banks that run Zelle have begun refunding victims of ‘imposter scams’ on the payment app, and more.

Scott Shapiro, Sean O’Brien, and Benjamin Wittes shared the ninth class in Lawfare’s Hacking and Cybersecurity course, entitled, “Penetration Testing.” They covered examining, analyzing, and scanning ports, the cyber kill chain, the phases of a hack, and more. 

On this week’s episode of “Lawfare Live: Trump’s Trials and Tribulations,” Wittes sat down with Anna Bower and Roger Parloff to discuss developments in Section 3 litigation in Michigan and Colorado, a hearing in the Fulton County election interference case, updates in the Mar-a-Lago case, and more:

Benjamin shared Michigan Claims Court Judge James Redford’s ruling dismissing complaints seeking to disqualify former President Donald Trump from Michigan’s 2024 Republican primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

On Lawfare No Bull, Benjamin shared edited audio of a Nov. 15 hearing in which Judge Scott McAfee heard arguments from defendants in the Fulton County case on defendant David Shafer’s proposed protective order. Prosecutors agreed to Shafer’s proposed order, as did most of his other co-defendants. The media intervenors in the case lodged a vigorous objection:

On Lawfare No Bull, Benjamin also shared edited audio of a Nov. 3 hearing in which Judge McAfee heard arguments on motions from the Georgia Secretary of State, the Fulton County Superior Court Clerk, and the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections to quash defendant Harrison Floyd’s subpoenas for access to elections data from the 2020 election: 

On the Lawfare Podcast, Wittes sat down with Bower, Quinta Jurecic, Adam Klasfeld, and Alan Rozenshtein to discuss testimony in the New York civil case, gag orders on Trump in New York and D.C., the dismissal of the Minnesota Section 3 case, and more:

On the Lawfare Podcast, Parloff sat down with Ryan J. Reilly to discuss his new book, “Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System.” They spoke about who the Sedition Hunters are, how Ryan came across them, and why their activities have been so important for the Jan. 6 criminal investigation: 

On Lawfare No Bull, Benjamin shared edited audio of the Oct. 31 Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing entitled “Threats to the Homeland” in which NCTC Director Christine Abizaid, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and FBI Director Christopher Wray testified about terrorism threats, issues related to the southern border, and more:

On the Lawfare Podcast, Tyler McBrien sat down with Nick Turse to discuss his recent article in The Intercept about a March 2018 drone strike in Somalia that claimed two civilian lives and the wider context of AFRICOM's drone war across the region:

Gil Baram examined the cyber threat China poses to Taiwan and the work Taiwan is doing to improve its satellite infrastructure to combat these threats.

On the Lawfare Podcast, in an edition of “The Regulators,” a special series Lawfare co-produces with the law firm Morrison & Foerster, Brandon Van Grack and Scott R. Anderson sat down with Matt Axelrod to discuss how export control enforcement works, the sorts of coordination it requires with industry and foreign countries, and more:

Anna Hickey shared the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s fifth National Climate Assessment. 

On Rational Security, Anderson and Jurecic sat down with McBrien to discuss this week’s big national security news stories, including how Israel may handle a post-Hamas Gaza, New York City Mayor Eric Adams being investigated, a lawsuit over the U.S. government’s engagement with social media interfering with the FBI, and more:

And on Chatter, Shane Harris sat down with Martine Powers to discuss her new investigative podcast, “The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop” about Maurice Bishop, the revolutionary leader and prime minister of Grenada:

And that was the week that was.