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Rational Security: The “A Friend in Need is a Friend's Security Guaranteed” Edition

Quinta Jurecic, Scott R. Anderson, Tyler McBrien
Thursday, December 14, 2023, 12:00 PM
This week, Quinta and Scott were joined by Lawfare managing editor Tyler McBrien to talk through the week’s big national security news

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

This week, Quinta and Scott were joined by Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien to talk through the week’s big national security news, including…
  • “You’ll Shoot Your Five Eyes Out with a Bibi Gun.” From Ukraine to Gaza, some of the biggest controversies surrounding U.S. foreign policy hinge on the assistance—including weapons and intelligence—that the United States provides to its allies. What makes these relationships so complicated? 

  • “The Sock-It Docket.” Late last week, Special Counsel Jack Smith executed a power move, bringing former President Trump’s appeal of the denial of his claim of absolute presidential immunity directly to the Supreme Court — through what is often called the “rocket docket” — and citing precedents from the Nixon era suggesting the Supreme Court should resolve the issue within weeks. What does this move tell us — and how likely is Smith to win his case?

  • “Netanya-who?” President Biden’s bear hug of Israeli prime minister may be loosening, as he has reportedly told donors that Netanyahu must go if Israel is to retain international support. How serious a move is this? And what might it mean for the conflict in Gaza?

For object lessons, Quinta continued to show off her bookshelf by recommending Jeff Horwitz’s Broken Code. Scott flagged for listeners that White Christmas is, in fact, the best holiday movie and no one should try to argue otherwise. And Tyler endorsed Julie Byrne’s album from earlier this year, The Greater Wings.


Quinta Jurecic is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare. She previously served as Lawfare's managing editor and as an editorial writer for the Washington Post.
Scott R. Anderson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow in the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State and as the legal advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
Tyler McBrien is the managing editor of Lawfare. He previously worked as an editor with the Council on Foreign Relations and a Princeton in Africa Fellow with Equal Education in South Africa, and holds an MA in international relations from the University of Chicago.