The Week That Was

Lawfare editors reflected on 2024’s biggest issues, including the war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East, cybersecurity, the end of the Trump Trials, challenges to democracy and the rule of law, and more.

On Lawfare Daily, Lawfare editors answered questions on a range of topics, including presidential pardons, the risks of AI, domestic deployment of the military, and more.

In the final episode of Chatter, Shane Harris and David Priess reflected on the diverse range of topics at the frontiers of national security that the podcast explored—from spy fiction to lessons of history, from climate change to the visual and musical arts, from sports and culture to the practice of intelligence, and more.

On Rational Security, Scott R. Anderson was joined by Alan Z. Rozenshtein and Quinta Jurecic for an end-of-year discussion of the latest national security news, including the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, the enforceability of the pending TikTok ban, the Tornado Cash decision, which national security story from 2024 deserved the most attention, and more.

Benjamin Wittes presented four “baskets of activity” in which to place news about the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, namely the “Midnight Judges basket”—Joe Biden’s final actions as president; the “Nominations Basket”—Trump’s controversial nominations to his administration; the “Day One Basket”—the significant policy changes Trump will bring about in his first days in office; and the “Longer Term Basket”—the drawn-out reforms for which “Trump and the cadres around him” will immediately begin to lay the foundations.

Austin Doctor argued that three recent terror threats—the New Orleans vehicle attack, the Las Vegas Cybertruck bombing, and an FBI raid of a homemade explosives stockpile in a residence in Virginia—herald the continuing danger of improvised explosive devices as the weapon of choice for terrorists and violent extremists in the United States.

Patryk Labuda introduced Lawfare’s new essay series on collective global memory and its impacts 0n the Russia-Ukraine war.

In the first essay of the series, Dovilė Budrytė and Violeta Davoliūtė explored how historical memory in the Global South(s) has influenced policy responses to the Russia-Ukraine war. They disaggregated different state’s responses in the Global South, considered the motivations driving varying attitudes, discussed the role of memory, and more.

In the second essay of the series, Anastasiia Vorobiova discussed the recent ICJ ruling in Ukraine v. Russia, critically examining several assumptions within the judgement, including the misconceptions surrounding the habitation of Crimea by ethnic Russians, whether all Russian speakers in Crimea are actually ethnically Russian, Russia’s attempts to erase Ukrainian and Moldovan identity, and more.

On Lawfare Daily, Kevin Frazier sat down with John Bridgeland to discuss the United States’ preparedness for a large-scale conflict, its culture of service (or lack thereof), ongoing efforts to reform and expand military, national, and public service opportunities, and more.

Also on Lawfare Daily, Natalie K. Orpett sat down with Brian Hoxie to talk about the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act, legislation passed in 2021 in response to reports that the Chinese government was committing major human rights abuses against its Uyghur population, including disappearances and forced labor. Orpett and Hoxie discussed the act’s goals, its implementation, what the U.S. government is doing to combat forced labor, and more.

Behnam Ben Taleblu reviewed “Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination—and Secret Diplomacy—to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob and Ilan Evyatar. Taleblu found the book to be a “compelling read[]” that comprehensively details Israel’s covert actions to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons over the last decade. 

Frazier considered why predictions that artificial intelligence (AI) would greatly disrupt and propagate disinformation in 2024—a “super year” of elections—failed. Frazier explored AI labs’ efforts to mitigate electoral disruption resulting from AI misuse, responses to disinformation, the future prospects of AI-induced election disruption, and more.

On Lawfare Daily, Chinmayi Sharma sat down with Catherine Sharkey, Bryan Choi, and Katrina Geddes for a conversation on how traditional legal doctrines tackle AI, including AI negligence, intellectual property within the generative AI supply chain, and more.

And on Lawfare Daily, Frazier talked to Daniel Holz about Holz’s work as the founding director of the Existential Risk Laboratory, including existential risks, the need for greater awareness and study of those risks, the purpose of the Doomsday Clock operated by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and more.

And that was the week that was.