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Anticipating an Increased U.S. Ground Combat Role against ISIL Based on "Self-Defense"
What, precisely, is the role of U.S. ground forces in the conflict with ISIL? In a post earlier this week, I described how the "train and assist" mission permits the presence of U.S. personnel on site w... -
A Heroic Operation to Free ISIL Prisoners...and a Reminder that the "Assist" Mission Can Mean U.S. Troops in Ground Combat
In a dramatic predawn raid, dozens of Delta Force operators deployed alongside elite Kurdish troops to raid an ISIL compound in Iraq in hopes of freeing prisoners who were under threat of imminent execut... -
One Thing the NDAA Would Have Done, and Might Yet Do: Tweaking the Lethal Ops Oversight Framework
Granted, the NDAA FY'16 has just been vetoed, and there probably aren't enough votes in Congress to override. But should it be the case that a deal gets worked out on the budget squabble, we may well se... -
President Obama Vetoes NDAA
President Barack Obama has followed up on his promise to veto the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, an annual defense policy bill. Defense One reports that the veto is only the president's fifth a... -
John McCain and Mac Thornberry Discuss the NDAA at Brookings
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The Forever War Is Entrenched
Many commentators noted last week that President Obama’s decision to keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through 2016 (with the hope of reducing that number to 5,500), combined with the rising number of tro... -
Drones, Their Critics, and Obama's War Powers Legacy
Few things have been more emblematic of the military and, indeed, political aspects of the Obama War Powers legacy than drones. As many have noted, the use of this weapons system has vastly increased du... -
A Response to the “Drone Papers”: AUMF Targeting is a Deliberate Process with Robust Political Accountability
The Intercept’s “Drone Papers” leaker “believes the public has a right to know how the U.S. government decides to assassinate people.” Maybe so—or maybe public safety and the need for secrecy trump the p... -
On U.S. Drone Bases in Africa
Yesterday afternoon, President Obama sent a letter to Congress alerting members that 300 U.S. -
President Obama Sends War Powers Letter to Congress Regarding 300 Troops Headed to Cameroon
Today, President Barack Obama sent a War Powers letter to Congress noting that as of October 12, 2015, approximately 90 U.S. Armed Forces personnel began deploying to Cameroon "with the consent of the Go... -
The D.C. Circuit, Military Commissions, and Pre-9/11 Offenses
What was already shaping up to be a busy (and important) few months for the D.C. Circuit vis-a-vis the Guantánamo military commissions just got a little busier. -
The New Normal? From Global War on Terrorism to Global Counterterrorism Footprint
Is the GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) coming back? Or did it never really end?
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