Professor Stephen Holmes
Professor David Golove
Professor Rachel Goldbrenner
Spring 2025
Thursdays, 4:45–6:45 p.m.
Room VH202
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, unchallenged American hegemony is increasingly a feature of the past. U.S. policymakers no longer see transnational terrorism as the central threat to American national security. The nature of how we fight as well as how we cooperate across borders is changing. 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 simultaneous threats and opportunities presented by rapidly evolving technology and cyber landscapes, the state of America’s traditional alliances and values, and emerging conflicts that threaten international peace and stability. And we will also focus on domestic issues within the United States, including strains on our system of democracy, challenges within our national security bureaucracy, white nationalism and systemic racism, and persistent questions around executive powers, judicial review, 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 experts, journalists, and human rights and civil liberties advocates—as we explore the defining features and dilemmas of today’s national security law and policy.
January 30
Mary McCord (Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, Georgetown Law)
The Evolving Threat of Domestic Extremism and Political Violence
February 6
Maria Lipman (Institute of European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University)
War and People: State-Society Relations Since Russia's Invasion of Ukraine
February 13
Elizabeth Saunders (Columbia University)
The Insider's Game: How Elites Make War and Peace
February 20
Pratap Mehta (Princeton University)
India After the End of "End of History"
February 27
Elizabeth Goitein (Brennan Center for Justice)
Emergency Powers and Domestic Deployment of the Military
March 6
Abraham Newman (Georgetown University)
Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy
March 13
Charles Kupchan (Council on Foreign Relations and Georgetown University)
The Promise and Peril of Trump's America First
March 20
Erin Sikorsky (The Center for Climate and Security)
National Security & Foreign Policy in a Climate Changed World
April 3
Bonnie Glaser (German Marchall Fund)
How Likely is Military Conflict in the Taiwan Strait, and How Can It Be Averted?
April 10
Jose Alvarez (NYU Law)
Revisiting the United Nations Collective Security System
April 17
Deborah Pearlstein (Princeton School of Public and International Affairs)
How the Rule of Law Survives the Disinformation Age
April 24
Tess Bridgeman (Just Security)
War Powers Law and Practice Across Presidential Administrations