By Daphne Barak-Erez* — Click here to read the full text of the Article When collecting information about possible terrorist attacks, national security agencies may have to choose between competing systems of implementation, all infringing individual rights. Should they collect information by indiscriminately wiretapping communications in the population at large or by implementing harsher means, such as investigations under arrest, […]

By Haridimos V. Thravalos* — Click here to view the full text of the article. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will soon confront the question of whether, under the Military Commissions Act of 2009, conspiracy to violate the law of war is an offense triable by law-of-war military commission. In June 2006, a plurality […]

Philip Alston, former UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, has written a fascinating article on targeted killings. The full text of the article is available here.

Volume 3, Issue 1 of the Harvard National Security Journal is now available online. The articles will be available on Westlaw and HeinOnline shortly.  

By Paul H. Robinson* & Adil Ahmad Haque** — Click here to read the full text of the Article Current international law imposes limitations on the use of force to defend against unlawful aggression that improperly advantage unlawful aggressors and disadvantage their victims. The Article gives examples of such rules, governing a variety of situations, showing how clearly unjust they […]

By Andru E. Wall* — Click here to read the full text of the Article Modern warfare requires close integration of military and intelligence forces. The Secretary of Defense possesses authorities under Title 10 and Title 50 and is best suited to lead US government operations against external unconventional and cyber threats. Titles 10 and 50 create mutually supporting, not […]

By Jerry Brito* & Tate Watkins** — Click here to read the full text of the Article There has been no shortage of attention devoted to cybersecurity, with a wide range of experts warning of potential doomsday scenarios should the government not act to better secure the Internet. But this is not the first time we have been warned of […]

By Steven M. Bellovin*, Scott O. Bradner**, Whitfield Diffie***, Susan Landau****, and Jennifer Rexford***** — Click here to read the full text of the Article In an effort to protect its computer systems from malevolent actors, the U.S. government has developed a series of intrusion-detection and intrusion- prevention systems aimed at monitoring and screening traffic between the internet and government […]

By Vik Kanwar* — Click here to read the full text of the Review Essay Vik Kanwar reviews: P.W. Singer, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century (Penguin Press 2009), Ronald Arkin, Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots (Chapman & Hall 2009), William H. Boothby, Weapons and the Law of Armed Conflict (Oxford University Press […]

By Phillip B. Heymann* — Click here to read the full text of the Essay In response to various scholarly commentaries, Professor Philip Heymann argues that applying the law of war outside of the “normal state-against-state context,” in order to justify military detention, involves an “increased risk of mistakes, unfairness, and resentment by our allies,” as “in the context of […]