Guest Post: David Maxwell asks “Is Kim Playing Trump?”
This week’s guest post is from my friend Dave Maxwell, a retired Special Forces officer now a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) [see Dave’s info at the end...
Category: WMD
A Day Makes a Difference in a Decades-Old US-North Korea Chasm
When I was stationed at Korea’s Osan Air Base in the late 1970s, no one even imagined a day when an American president would be shaking hands with a North Korean leader. In fact, just...
We must also consider the downsides of not bombing Syria: A Response to Professors Goldsmith and Hathaway
I have to disagree with the essay (“The Downsides of Bombing Syria”) authored by my friends, professors Jack Goldsmith and Oona Hathaway, in which they insist that a possible U.S. strike in response to the recent...
Don’t create an international armed conflict between the UK and Russia
Yesterday the British Prime Minister Theresa May stated that “it was highly likely that Russia was responsible” for the March 4th poisoning attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury, England. ...
The “Bloody Nose” strategy debate: why it’s more complicated than some think
A robust debate has emerged over a Lawfare post by Lieutenant Colonel Shane Reeves and Captain Rob Lawless entitled “Is There an International Legal Basis for the ‘Bloody Nose’ Strategy?” It examines the legality...
The Danger of Tampering with America’s Nuclear Command and Control System
America’s command and control system has operated in a way that has helped deter the use of nuclear weapons for more than seventy years. However, over on Lawfare, Professors Richard Betts and Matt Waxman...
Guest Post: Al Mauroni on why “Nuclear Weapons Planning is Not Simplistic”
One of the main reasons Lawfire exists is to serve those readers who sense that they are not getting the full story about national and international security issues. In my experience the major media outlets very...
Do Duke’s principles and values call for a rethinking of its involvement with China?
In the aftermath of the removal of a memorial of Robert E. Lee from its chapel, Duke University established a “Commission on Memory and History at Duke” that, among other things, is to propose...
Be wary of treating gun violence like international terrorism: different problems require different solutions
Like everyone, former Army officer Benjamin Haas is rightly horrified by the terrible tragedy in Las Vegas where 50 were killed and 406 hospitalized. However, his essay over on Just Security (“Gun Violence Deserves...
Assessing the legal case for the use of force against North Korea: is “armistice law” a factor?
In the aftermath of yet another nuclear test by North Korea in defiance of the UN Security Council resolutions, U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster insisted that although “it’s not what we would prefer...
