The Book Review delves into the many books on national security and related fields published each year. It offers reviews that range widely across subjects and disciplines, from domestic and international law to history, strategic and military studies, from national security journalism to terrorism and counterterrorism, ethics, and technology. Contributors include scholars, serving or former government officials or military personnel, journalists, experts of many kinds, and students in law school or university.
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Conceptualizing Cyberwar
Last Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal (November 10, 2015) carried a front-page story titled “Ukraine: Cyberwar’s Hottest Front.” -
The International Criminal Court and Power Politics
The recent appearance on Lawfare of my American University colleague David Bosco (in the roundtable on US Navy operations in the South China Sea) prompts His Serenity to fix his lapse in failing to mark ... -
Congressional Oversight of US Foreign Relations and National Security?
Executive power is on the rise, a familiar argument runs, and necessarily at the expense of Congressional authority. -
How Scientists and Lawyers Shape the American Way of War
Stephanie Carvin (Carleton University, Canada, and friend to several of us at Lawfare) and Michael John Williams (NYU) are international relations scholars who focus on national and international securit... -
A True Cold War Spy Thriller with Contemporary Relevance
The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal David Hoffman Doubleday (2015) 336 pages I didn’t pick up The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal ... -
From Al Qaeda in Iraq to ISIS, From al Zarqawi to al Baghdadi
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS Joby Warrick Doubleday (2015) Reviewed by Bruce Riedel -
How Anwar al-Awlaki Came to Be Targeted With an Armed Drone
Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone By Scott Shane Published by Tim Duggan Books (2015) Nearly three years ago, testifying before a congressional hearing, I observed t... -
A Techno-Thriller That's Not Just for the Beach in August
Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War By Peter W. Singer and August Cole Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2015) Reviewed by Charles J. Dunlap, Jr. -
A Soldier of the Great War
The Great War of Our Time: The CIA's Fight Against Terrorism--From al Qa'ida to ISIS By Michael Morell Twelve/The Hachette Group (2015) Reviewed by Gabriel Schoenfeld -
Life and Times of a Guantanamo Detainee
Guantanamo Diary By Mohamedou Ould Slahi (edited by Larry Siems) Published by Hatchette Book Group (2015) Reviewed by Zoe Bedell It's rare that quotes on the back of a book tell you anything genuinel... -
Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren's Misconceived Memoir
Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide By Michael Oren RandomHouse (2015) Reviewed by Yishai Schwartz -
Days of Rage in the 1970s: America's Homegrown, Violent, Bomb-Setting Radical Underground
Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence By Bryan Burrough Penguin Random House (2015)