The Week that Was: All of Lawfare in One Post
Your weekly summary of everything on the site.
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Nicholas Weaver wrote about the recent hack of SolarWinds, an online operating system used by many government agencies.
Jack Goldsmith detailed his immediate reaction to the reports about the large-scale cyber exploitation.
Alvaro Marañon shared the intelligence community’s joint statement announcing a Cyber Unified Coordination Group to respond to the SolarWinds hack.
Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of Rational Security in which Benjamin Wittes, Tamara Cofman Wittes, Susan Hennessey and Shane Harris discussed the hack:
Benjamin Jensen, Brandon Valeriano and Mark Montgomery explored the strategic implications of SolarWinds.
Robert Morgus argued that the hack represents a failure of U.S. Cyber Command’s “defend forward” strategy.
Josh Stiefel and Ian D. Smith proposed four ways in which President-elect Biden could make progress on cybersecurity on day one.
Alex Engler suggested how the Biden administration can combat misinformation on social media platforms.
Howell shared the latest episode in Lawfare’s "Arbiters of Truth" series on disinformation, featuring Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic’s interview with Jaime Longoria—an investigative journalist at First Draft—about the longstanding presence of mis- and disinformation in the Spanish-speaking world:
Benjamin Wittes explained why President Trump’s pardon of his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, should give Americans pause—arguing that the move is a concerning harbinger of what’s to come in the remaining weeks of Trump’s tenure in the White House.
Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Alan Rozenshtein sat down with Yaya Fanusie, a former CIA analyst and an expert on the national security implications of cryptocurrencies, on his recently published paper—the latest addition to Lawfare’s Digital Social Contract paper series—entitled, "Central Bank Digital Currencies: The Threat From Money Launderers and How to Stop Them":
Yaya J. Fanusie shared the paper itself, in which he argues that central banks should use digital currency to prevent money laundering.
Amy Robinson and Jim Waldo explained the inherent limitations of contact-tracing apps.
Robert Chesney and Steve Vladeck shared an episode of the National Security Law Podcast about the latest developments in the TikTok lawsuit and the Justice Department and the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Briggs:
Rohini Kurup shared a federal grand jury’s indictment of six men for conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Chesney discussed the three main questions raised by the U.S.’s capture of Cholo Abdi Abdullah, a member of the Somali al-Shabaab terrorist group, who allegedly planned to commit a Sept. 11-style attack on U.S. soil.
Lester Munson shared an episode of the Fault Lines podcast featuring a conversation with a panel of experts—including Michael Gottlieb, former associate counsel to President Obama—to explore whether President Trump had significant foreign policy wins during his term:
Kenneth Propp described a mounting crisis between the U.S. and the European Union over the exchange of transatlantic data.
Stewart Baker shared an episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast featuring an interview with Alex Stamos, the former chief security officer at Facebook, about the implications of the European Union’s privacy legislation for sexual abusers:
Jonathan G. Odom debunked a new Chinese talking point about U.S. policy in the South China Sea.
Jordan Schneider shared an episode of the ChinaTalk podcast featuring his interview with Wendy Cutler, who served 28 years in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and discussed how President-elect Biden could address China on trade issues:
Schneider also shared an episode of ChinaTalk about international economic policy tools of coercion in the U.S.-China relationship:
Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring Jordan Schneider’s interviews with several experts about current China-Australia relations:
Intissar Fakir explained why the U.S. recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara territory is significant and argued that the move will have serious implications for all parties involved moving forward.
Mai el-Sadany examined how Egypt has been using counterterrorism tactics to silence legitimate dissent.
Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring an interview with Jasmine El-Gamal, nonresident senior fellow with the Middle East program at the Atlantic Council, about how working as a translator at Guantanamo shaped her later policy career, in addition to her view of America, Islam and counterterrorism:
Almudena Azcárate Ortega discussed whether the Artemis Accords bode well for international cooperation in outer space.
Darrell West shared the latest episode of the TechTank podcast, discussing the implications of the gig economy with guests Makada Henri Nicky and Aaron Klein:
Cameron Kerry and John B. Morris Jr. argued that legislative findings will be important for federal privacy investigation.
And Bryce Klehm announced this week’s Lawfare Live event, in which Lawfare’s Scott Anderson, Susan Hennessey, Benjamin Wittes and David Priess fielded live questions from the audience about the Biden administration’s nominees for top national security positions:
And that was the week that was.