The Week That Was

Ben Green, Olivia Manes, Tyler McBrien, and Katherine Pompilio broke down Tuesday night’s presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, examining the candidates’ contrasting national security visions through the lens of the rule of law, democracy, immigration, trade, and more. 

On Rational Security, the debut episode of RatSec 2.1, Scott R. Anderson sat down with Kevin Frazier, Eugenia Lostri, and Benjamin Wittes to discuss the week’s big national security news, including Tuesday’s presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Justice Department’s array of indictments against various Russian actors and their proxies, the national security legacy of 9/11, and more.

Quinta Jurecic and Natalie Orpett examined the government’s widespread interagency effort to counter Russian influence operations in the United States including: the Department of Justice’s indictments of multiple Russian nationals allegedly linked to the Kremlin, the Department of the Treasury’s designation of 1o individuals and two entities, the Department of State’s new visa issuance restrictions against individuals connected to Russian state-controlled media, and more.

As a part of our Lawfare Live series, we are pleased to announce the launch of a new series investigating the 2024 candidates’ positions on a variety of national security issues. Entitled Lawfare Live: National Security and the 2024 Election, the series will consist of biweekly live stream discussions of where the candidates stand on key issues like election management, U.S. aid to Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza War, tensions between the U.S. and China, and more. The first event, Lawfare Live: National Security and the 2024 Election, Armed Conflict, was on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 3:30 p.m. ET. You can watch the first part of the broadcast here, and the second part here.

In this week’s installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Daniel Sobelman discussed the relationship between Iran and its “Axis of Resistance”—its political and military coalition that includes Hamas and Hezbollah—and what coordination between Iran and its allies might mean for the balance of the Middle East after the end of the war in Gaza…

On Lawfare Daily, Anderson spoke with Andrew Miller about the Biden administration’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the context of its wider foreign policy strategy, detailing the Oct. 7 massacre, the ensuing war in Gaza, and the future of U.S. policy in the region.

Alex Tausanovitch introduced a new essay series, produced in collaboration between Lawfare and Protect Democracy on the limitations, drawbacks, and dangers of domestic deployments. Tausanovitch kicks off the series with an overview of the forthcoming essays intended to discuss the legal limits on the domestic use of the military, potential consequences of involving the military in domestic incidents, and more.

In the first installment of the new series from Protect Democracy and Lawfare on the limitations, drawbacks, and dangers of domestic deployment, Laura A. Dickinson discussed the Insurrection Act and how it provides an exception to restrictions on presidents deploying military forces within the United States, outside the context of invasion or rebellion. Dickinson warned against the deployment of the Insurrection Act without restraint, implored congressional reform on the statute, and urged the executive branch and the courts to continue to interpret the text of the act narrowly.

On Lawfare Daily, McBrien and Matt Gluck sat down with Brian Finucane, and Matthew Waxman to discuss the current state of war powers in the U.S. government after Oct. 7, the relevant history of war powers, the possibility of war powers legal reform moving forward, and more.

Yaël Ronen examined the latest arguments from the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the International Criminal Court, which recently disputed claims that the Oslo Accords prevent Palestine from conferring jurisdiction over Israeli nationals. Ronen pointed out the OTP’s overreliance on principles of self-determination and occupation law, as well as its failure to address Palestine’s status under international law effectively.

Mai El-Sadany examined Egypt’s newly drafted criminal procedure code, proposed as a solution to the country’s pretrial detention crisis. Instead, El-Sadany warned that the code— if passed— would destroy the integrity of Egypt’s criminal justice system, normalizing warrantless searches, reducing the role of defense lawyers, and criminalizing trial monitoring, among other alarming provisions.

Richard Primus explained how a federal judge’s opinion in Davis v. Cisneros clarifies a portion of Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, and how this interpretation of the Reconstruction-era statute could be used as a tool to address election-related violence. 

Matt Perault considered Justice Samuel Alito’s concurring opinion in Moody v. NetChoice— a Supreme Court case regarding  the deplatforming of conservative candidates on social media platforms—suggesting that Alito’s assertion that “the sky is not falling” is demonstrative of catastrophizing rhetoric, preventing lawmakers and policymakers from developing more nuanced assessments of tech policy impact.

Alan Z. Rozenshtein tackled an August U.S. Court of Appeals ruling for the Third Circuit, Anderson v. TikTok, in which the court found that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not shield social media platforms from harm caused by their own algorithmic recommendation of third-party content. Although Rozenshtein agreed with Anderson’s conclusion, he found that the court’s reasoning that Section 230 can and should be seen through a First Amendment lens was deeply flawed. 

On Lawfare Daily, Lostri sat down with Nick Ashton-Hart to discuss the United Nations’ first ever cybercrime convention, which was finalized in August. Lostri and Ashton-Hart discussed potential issues the treaty raises, how it compares to alternatives for law enforcement cooperation, and what the next steps are as the treaty goes to a vote before the UN General Assembly.

Iain Nash and Pier Giorgio Chiara discussed the European Union’s forthcoming Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), which will introduce specific horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products containing digital elements, including software products. Nash and Chiara compared the CRA to similar jurisprudence in the American legal system, analyzed the CRA’s comprehensive cybersecurity requirements, and cautioned against the Act’s conflation of cybersecurity with fundamental rights.

In the latest installment of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren broke down the latest news, including a new report finding global spyware market concentration in Israel, India, and Italy, the U.S. government’s latest action against Kremlin “hacktivists,” two new security enhancements coming to Windows, and more.

In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Security by Design series, Jason Healey discussed the need for macro-level assessments of cybersecurity, enabled by the development of indicators, clear hypotheses, and progress tracking. Healey determined that gathering comprehensive data on cyber attacks and vulnerabilities may be the first, critical step for the U.S. government to achieve a successful cybersecurity policy.

On Lawfare Daily, Lostri, John Speed Meyers, and Paul Gibert discussed the challenges of securing open source software (OSS), including what sorts of harms OSS compromises can lead to, how Log4J opened a political window for action on OSS security, how the software liability debate affects OSS developers, and more.

Also on Lawfare Daily, Frazier sat down with Helen Toner and Zach Arnold to discuss their recent Lawfare article "AI Regulation's Champions Can Seize Common Ground—or Be Swept Aside.” The trio also explored the divide between AI "doomers" and "ethicists," and how finding common ground could strengthen efforts to responsibly govern AI.

On Chatter, David Priess talked to Max Boot about Boot’s new book, “Reagan: His Life and Legend," a definitive biography of Ronald Reagan, 11 years in the making. Boot discussed Reagan’s appeal as a biography subject, his career as an actor, his rise to becoming one of the most influential presidents of all time, and more.

Peter Keisler reviewed “Where Tyranny Begins: The Justice Department, the FBI, and the War on Democracy” by David Rohde, which details Rohde’s seven tumultuous years at the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, following the election of Donald Trump in 2016.

To support Lawfare’s coverage of the Trump Trials—a first-of-its-kind project dedicated to providing in-depth coverage of the ongoing criminal proceedings against Trump in Washington, Florida, New York, and Georgia—please consider making a contribution here. Lawfare’s talented correspondents and analysts discuss the latest developments in the cases, explain the complex legal issues they raise, and consider what might come next in a wide range of content, including written analysis, podcasts, live and recorded virtual events, primary source document repositories, and infographics.

And that was the week that was.