Professor Stephen Holmes
Professor David Golove
Professor Rachel Goldbrenner
Spring 2021
Thursdays, 3:20–5:20 p.m.
LAW-LW.11698.001
2 credits
The Colloquium will explore a broad array of emerging issues in the rapidly changing field of national security. Today, U.S. policy makers no longer see transnational terrorism as the central threat to American national security. Unchallenged American hegemony is increasingly a feature of the past. The nature of how we fight as well as how we cooperate across borders is changing. Phenomena like the COVID pandemic pose both domestic and international challenges. The aim of the seminar, therefore, is to define and debate the new, complex and evolving threat environment facing the country in the third decade of the twenty-first century. We will look abroad, including at deteriorating relations with an increasingly powerful China and a belligerent Russia, the threat of cyber warfare and “gray zone” tactics, the weakening of America’s traditional alliances and values, and emerging conflicts in regions such as the Middle East. And we will also focus on domestic issues in the United States, including white nationalism and systemic racism, strains on our system of democracy, challenges within our national security bureaucracy, and persistent, and growing, questions around executive powers and the adequacy of Congressional oversight. Each week we will engage with a presentation by an eminent national security expert—including former government officials, legal academics, international relations specialists, journalists, and human rights advocates—as we explore the defining features and dilemmas of today’s national security law and policy.
Spring 2021 Schedule of Presenters
Thursday, January 21
Professor Ryan Goodman (NYU School of Law)
Incitement, Insurrection, and Accountability
Thursday, January 28
Rob Malley (International Crisis Group)
The Future of Middle East Policy
Thursday, February 4
Rosa Brooks (Georgetown School of Law)
Policing, War Making, and National Security
Thursday, February 11
Steve Vladeck (University of Texas School of Law)
What Can/Should We Do About Guantanamo?
Thursday, February 18
Rebecca Ingber (Cardozo Law)
National Security by Congress and the Courts
Thursday, February 25
Liza Goitein (Brennan Center for Justice)
Emergency Powers and Domestic Deployment of the Military
Thursday, March 4
Azmat Khan (New York Times Magazine Contributing Writer)
Civilian Casualties and Modern Warfare
Thursday, March 11
Masha Gessen (The New Yorker)
Authoritarianism
Thursday, March 18
TBA
Thursday, April 1
Ganesh Sitaraman (Vanderbilt School of Law)
TBA
Thursday, April 8
Catherine Powell (Fordham Law School)
A (Thurgood) Marshall Plan and National Security Paradigms for Pandemic Response and Recovery
Thursday, April 15
Elizabeth Economy (Council on Foreign Relations)
China
Thursday, April 22
Professor Samuel Rascoff (NYU School of Law)
Cybersecurity