Self-Defense and the Limits of WMD Intelligence
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“New” Vs. “Old” Terrorism*
The Debate over “New” vs. “Old” Terrorism* Prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, August 30-September 2, 2007 Martha Crenshaw Center for International Security and Cooperation Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6165 [email protected] Since 9/11, many policy makers, journalists, consultants, and scholars have become convinced that the world confronts a “new” terrorism unlike the terrorism of the past.1 Thus the government and policy elites have been blamed for not recognizing the danger of the “new” terrorism in the 1990s and therefore failing to prevent the disaster of 9/11.2 Knowledge of the “old” or traditional terrorism is sometimes considered irrelevant at best, and obsolete and anachronistic, even harmful, at worst. Some of those who argue 1 Examples include Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), although Hoffman is sometimes ambivalent; Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, The Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam’s War Against America (New York Random House, 2003); Walter Laqueur, The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); and Ian O. Lesser, et al., Countering the New Terrorism (Santa Monica: The Rand Corporation, 1999). Ambassador L. Paul Bremer contributed “A New Strategy for the New Face of Terrorism” to a special issue of The National Interest (Thanksgiving 2001), pp. 23-30. A recent post 9/11 overview is Matthew J. Morgan, “The Origins of the New Terrorism,” Parameters (the journal of the U.S. Army War College), 34, 1 (Spring 2004), pp. -
The 2002 National Security Strategy: the Foundation Of
Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Graduate Program in International Studies Dissertations Summer 2013 The 2002 aN tional Security Strategy: The Foundation of a Doctrine of Preemption, Prevention, or Anticipatory Action Troy Lorenzo Ewing Old Dominion University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gpis_etds Part of the American Politics Commons, Defense and Security Studies Commons, International Law Commons, Terrorism Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Ewing, Troy L.. "The 2002 aN tional Security Strategy: The oundF ation of a Doctrine of Preemption, Prevention, or Anticipatory Action" (2013). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), dissertation, International Studies, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/ 8f8q-9g35 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gpis_etds/46 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Program in International Studies at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE 2002 NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY: THE FOUNDATION OF A DOCTRINE OF PREEMPTION, PREVENTION, OR ANTICIPATORY ACTION by Troy Lorenzo Ewing B.A. May 1992, Rutgers University M.B.A. May 2001, Webster University M.S.S.I. May 2007, National Intelligence University A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY INTERNATIONAL STUDIES OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY August 2013 ABSTRACT THE 2002 NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY: THE FOUNDATION OF A DOCTRINE OF PREEMPTION, PREVENTION, OR ANTICIPATORY ACTION Troy Lorenzo Ewing Old Dominion University, 2013 Director: Dr. -
Two Cheers for Bargaining Theory Two Cheers for David A
Two Cheers for Bargaining Theory Two Cheers for David A. Lake Bargaining Theory Assessing Rationalist Explanations of the Iraq War The Iraq War has been one of the most signiªcant events in world politics since the end of the Cold War. One of the ªrst preventive wars in history, it cost trillions of dollars, re- sulted in more than 4,500 U.S. and coalition casualties (to date), caused enor- mous suffering in Iraq, and may have spurred greater anti-Americanism in the Middle East even while reducing potential threats to the United States and its allies. Yet, despite its profound importance, the causes of the war have re- ceived little sustained analysis from scholars of international relations.1 Al- though there have been many descriptions of the lead-up to the war, the ªghting, and the occupation, these largely journalistic accounts explain how but not why the war occurred.2 In this article, I assess a leading academic theory of conºict—the rationalist approach to war or, simply, bargaining theory—as one possible explanation of the Iraq War.3 Bargaining theory is currently the dominant approach in conºict David A. Lake is Jerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, and Associate Dean of Social Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author, most recently, of Hierarchy in International Relations (Cornell University Press, 2009). The author is indebted to Peter Gourevitch, Stephan Haggard, Miles Kahler, James Long, Rose McDermott, Etel Solingen, and Barbara Walter for helpful discussions on Iraq or comments on this article. -
Jihadists and Nuclear Weapons
VERSION: Charles P. Blair, “Jihadists and Nuclear Weapons,” in Gary Ackerman and Jeremy Tamsett, eds., Jihadists and Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Growing Threat (New York: Taylor and Francis, 2009), pp. 193-238. c h a p t e r 8 Jihadists and Nuclear Weapons Charles P. Blair CONTENTS Introduction 193 Improvised Nuclear Devices (INDs) 195 Fissile Materials 198 Weapons-Grade Uranium and Plutonium 199 Likely IND Construction 203 External Procurement of Intact Nuclear Weapons 204 State Acquisition of an Intact Nuclear Weapon 204 Nuclear Black Market 212 Incidents of Jihadist Interest in Nuclear Weapons and Weapons-Grade Nuclear Materials 213 Al-Qa‘ida 213 Russia’s Chechen-Led Jihadists 214 Nuclear-Related Threats and Attacks in India and Pakistan 215 Overall Likelihood of Jihadists Obtaining Nuclear Capability 215 Notes 216 Appendix: Toward a Nuclear Weapon: Principles of Nuclear Energy 232 Discovery of Radioactive Materials 232 Divisibility of the Atom 232 Atomic Nucleus 233 Discovery of Neutrons: A Pathway to the Nucleus 233 Fission 234 Chain Reactions 235 Notes 236 INTRODUCTION On December 1, 2001, CIA Director George Tenet made a hastily planned, clandestine trip to Pakistan. Tenet arrived in Islamabad deeply shaken by the news that less than three months earlier—just weeks before the attacks of September 11, 2001—al-Qa‘ida and Taliban leaders had met with two former Pakistani nuclear weapon scientists in a joint quest to acquire nuclear weapons. Captured documents the scientists abandoned as 193 AU6964.indb 193 12/16/08 5:44:39 PM 194 Charles P. Blair they fled Kabul from advancing anti-Taliban forces were evidence, in the minds of top U.S. -
The Contributions of the Obama Administration to the Practice and Theory of International Law
\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLI\57-2\HLI205.txt unknown Seq: 1 14-OCT-16 13:24 Volume 57, Number 2, Spring 2016 The Contributions of the Obama Administration to the Practice and Theory of International Law Jack Goldsmith* My aim in this essay is to give a tour of the horizon of the Obama admin- istration’s international law record in order to identify the distinctiveness of its approach and to tie it in to some general themes in international and foreign relations law. Due to his upbringing and education, Barack Obama came to the Presi- dency with a cosmopolitan outlook and an informed commitment to inter- national law. This attitude differed sharply from his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was suspicious of international law and generally viewed it as an obstacle to the exercise of American power. By contrast, Obama devoted a chapter of his 2006 book The Audacity of Hope to international relations and made plain that he understood international law intimately and viewed it as a constructive force in international relations.1 He criticized the view that “international law [was] an encroachment on American sovereignty [and] a foolish constraint on America’s ability to impose its will around the world”—a position that Obama associated with Henry Cabot Lodge, but one that might also describe the early Bush administration.2 And Obama argued it was “in America’s interest to work with other countries to build up international institutions and promote international norms . because the more international norms were reinforced and the more America sig- naled a willingness to show restraint in the exercise of its power, the fewer the number of conflicts that would arise.”3 On the campaign trail Obama gave voice to this attitude when he criticized the Bush administration for its weak compliance with U.S. -
Assessing Al-Qaeda's Chemical Threat
ISSN 1988-5237 AthenaIntelligence.org Assessing al-Qaeda’s Chemical T hreat René Pita Athena Paper, Vol. 2, No 2 Article 3/5 April 17, 2007 www.athenaintelligence.org 27 ISSN 1988-5237 AthenaIntelligence.org Introduction After the 11 September 2001 (9/11) terrorist attacks in the United States, there is a high perception of risk of possible attacks with chemical weapons (CW ), especially by groups affiliated or associated with the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Earlier, in 1994 and 1995, Aum Shinrikyo, a religious organization in Japan, used sarin, a nerve chemical warfare agent, in attacks in Matsumoto City and on the Tokyo subway, causing a large number of casualties. These terrorist attacks had a big impact on the chemical defence and intelligence communities but not on other circles, perhaps because a chemical attack by a religious organization in Japan seemed something far removed from the reality of the rest of the world. But this changed after 9/11 when the mailing of letters containing anthrax spores, accompanied by images of the attacks on the W orld Trade Center towers, increased the concern about weapons of mass destruction (W MD) attacks, including by CW . As a religious terrorist group, al-Qaeda does not fit the assumption made by Brian Jenkins in 1975 that “terrorists want a lot of people watching and a lot of people listening, and not a lot of people dead.”1 This statement fits better with secular terrorist groups. But for religious terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, “divine duty” results in disappearance of moral restraints that would justify “a lot of people dead” in their terrorist attacks,2 such as the 9/11 ones. -
Framing the War on Terror the Internalization of Policy in the US Press
Journalism Copyright © The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Vol. 10(6): 777–797 DOI: 10.1177/1464884909344480 ARTICLE Framing the War on Terror The internalization of policy in the US press Stephen D. Reese and Seth C. Lewis University of Texas, USA ABSTRACT The War on Terror was the label assigned by the Bush administration to its national security policy, launched in response to the attacks of 9/11. The cultural construction and political rationale supporting this slogan represent a powerful organizing prin- ciple that has become a widely accepted framing, laying the groundwork for the invasion of Iraq. We examine this framing where its sponsors intersect with US jour- nalism, as illustrated by news texts. Broadly, we examine trends in how news reports refer to the War on Terror and provide an interpretive analysis of stories in USA Today. From the period of September 2001 to early 2006, these news texts suggest that the frame was internalized by the US press. News and editorial reports went beyond ‘transmitting’ the label as shorthand for administration policy, to ‘reify’ the policy as uncontested, and ‘naturalize’ it as a taken-for-granted common-sense notion. KEY WORDS 9/11 framing ideology news routines news texts war on terror The challenge of political violence has grown with new means of global co- ordination and access to weapons of mass destruction. The Bush admini- stration’s response to this threat, following the now iconic policy reference point of 11 September 2001, has had far-ranging implications for national security strategy, relations with the world community, and civil liberties. -
Leaving Guantanamo
JANUARY 2012 HASC COMMITTEE PRINT 112-4 2120 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON, DC 20515 202.225.4151 ARMEDSERVICES.HOUSE.GOV LEAVING GUANTANAMO LEAVING As of September 2011, the LEAVING U.S. government believed that 27 percent of former GTMO detainees were confi rmed or suspected to have been engaged GUANTANAMO in terrorist or insurgent activities. POLICIES, PRESSURES, AND DETAINEES RETURNING TO THE FIGHT SUSPECTED OR CONFIRMED HASC 71-370_cover.indd 1 3/14/12 12:44 PM JANUARY 2012 HASC COMMITTEE PRINT 112-4 2120 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON, DC 20515 202.225.4151 ARMEDSERVICES.HOUSE.GOV LEAVING GUANTANAMO LEAVING As of September 2011, the LEAVING U.S. government believed that 27 percent of former GTMO detainees were confi rmed or suspected to have been engaged GUANTANAMO in terrorist or insurgent activities. POLICIES, PRESSURES, AND DETAINEES RETURNING TO THE FIGHT SUSPECTED OR CONFIRMED HASC 71-370_cover.indd 1 3/14/12 12:44 PM SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS of the COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 71-370_text_CX.indd i 3/23/12 8:55 AM ….we have been very selective in terms of returning people. One of the things we have discovered over time is that we are not particularly good at predicting which returnee will be a recidivist. Some of those that we have considered the most dangerous and who have been released or who we considered dangerous and potentially going back into the fi ght have not, and some that we evaluated as SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES not being much of a danger or much of a risk FEBRUARY 17, 2011 we have discovered in the fi ght. -
Constructivism, Strategic Culture, and the Iraq War
ASPJ Africa & Francophonie - 4th Quarter 2011 Constructivism, Strategic Culture, and the Iraq War TOBY LAUTERBACH* ccording to constructivists, the United States went to war in Iraq because the dominant strategic cultural norm, that of seeking geopolitical stability through multilateral deterrence, appeared bankrupt to the Bush administration after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11). This led elites in the administration to view Ademocratic regime change in Iraq as imposing an international norm of hegemonic global policing through unilateral preventive war. Given short- comings in the existing literature, this article makes the constructivist case for explaining the Iraq War. For constructivists, a proposed normative shift in American strategic cultural ideas played a causal role in the US invasion of Iraq. For those constructivists who take an ambitious perspective, the attempt to shift the norms of America’s strategic culture—and thus its national security policy—precipitated that invasion. A more cautious analyst would contend that the normative shift advocated by the Bush administra- tion worked in tandem with interest-based calculations, such as geopolitical logic, in leading to that military action. The Iraq War was supposed to prove the viability of a new norm—unilateral preventive war—advocated by neo- conservative norm entrepreneurs and traditional conservative converts as well as sympathizers in the Bush administration. This was part of a larger strategic cultural vision advocating the hegemonic promotion of democracy through force. Advocates intended that a new perspective on war, the hege- * Theauthor is a PhD candidate and former instructor at Purdue University. His research interests include the role of strategic culture in the Iraq War, the theory and practice of counterinsurgency, the study of realist theories such as Power Transition and Offshore Balancing, the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza- tion and the Western European Union, the rise of China as a peer competitor, and Pacific Rim security concerns. -
Carnage Interrupted: an Analysis of Fifteen Terrorist Plots Against Public Surface Transportation
MTI Carnage Interrupted: Plots An Analysis Against Fifteen of Public Surface Terrorist Transportation Carnage Interrupted: An Analysis of Fifteen Terrorist Plots Against Funded by U.S. Department of Transportation and California Department of Transportation Public Surface Transportation MTI ReportMTI 11-20 MTI Report 11-20 April 2012 MINETA TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE MTI FOUNDER Hon. Norman Y. Mineta The Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies was established by Congress in the MTI BOARD OF TRUSTEES Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). The Institute’s Board of Trustees revised the name to Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) in 1996. Reauthorized in 1998, MTI was selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation Honorary Chairman Joseph Boardman (Ex-Officio) John Horsley Michael S. Townes (TE 2011) through a competitive process in 2002 as a national “Center of Excellence.” The Institute is funded by Congress through the John L. Mica (Ex-Officio) Chief Executive Officer (Ex-Officio)* President/CEO (ret.) Amtrak Transportation District Commision of United States Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration, the California Legislature Chair Executive Director House Transportation and American Association of State Hampton Roads through the Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and by private grants and donations. Infrastructure Committee Donald H. Camph (TE 2012) Highway and Transportation Officials House of Representatives President (AASHTO) David L. Turney* (TE 2012) California Institute for Technology Chairman, President & CEO The Institute receives oversight from an internationally respected Board of Trustees whose members represent all major surface Honorary Co-Chair, Honorable Exchange Will Kempton (TE 2012) Digital Recorders, Inc. -
POLICY ROUNDTABLE: the War Powers Resolution
POLICY ROUNDTABLE: The War Powers Resolution Nov. 14, 2019 Table of Contents 1. “Introduction: The War Powers Resolution,” by Tess Bridgeman and Stephen Pomper 2. “War Powers Oversight, Not Reform,” by Matthew C. Waxman 3. “Yemen and the Limits of Congressional War Powers,” by Scott R. Anderson 4. “How to Revive Congress’ War Powers,” by Oona A. Hathaway 2 Texas National Security Review 1. War Powers Roundtable Introduction Tess Bridgeman and Stephen Pomper The current system for regulating the United States’ use of military force abroad is anything but straightforward. It is layered and filigreed, existing on parallel planes of domestic, international, constitutional, statutory, and common law. Much of it inhabits a grey zone between law and lore and arises out of a combination of historical practice and legal opinions generated by the executive branch that are rarely, if ever, checked by a co-equal branch of government. Ask a national security lawyer when it is legal for a U.S. president to take the country to war, and you will need to be prepared for a long conversation. Ask whether the current system should be reformed, and be prepared for it to go longer still. At the center of this complex system are the political branches of government — Congress, which has over time ceded significant authority in the area of war powers, and the executive branch, which has asserted a correspondingly expansive role. Recently, however, Congress has begun to push back. It has attempted to legislate an end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition -
UNITED STATES } D-022 of } Ruling on Defense Motion for Dismissal Due to AMERICA } Lack of Jurisdiction Under the MCA in Regard to Juvenile Crimes of a Child Soldier
} UNITED STATES } D-022 OF } Ruling on Defense Motion for Dismissal Due to AMERICA } Lack of Jurisdiction Under the MCA in Regard to Juvenile Crimes of a Child Soldier 30 April 2008 v } } OMAR AHMED KHADR } a/k/a “Akhbar Farhad” } a/k/a “Akhbar Farnad” } a/k/a “Ahmed Muhammed Khahi” } 1. The commission has considered the defense motion, the government response, and the defense reply. Both sides presented oral argument on the matter. 2. The commission received three amicus briefs which, exercising the discretion granted to the military judge by the Rules of Court, meet the requirements of RC 7 for the purposes of this motion. ● Amicus Curiae Brief filed by McKenzie Livingston, Esq. on Behalf of Sen. Robert Badinter, et. al. ● Amicus Brief filed by Sarah H. Paoletti on behalf of Canadian parliamentatarians and law professors, international law scholars with specific expertise in the area of international humanitarian law, international criminal law and international human rights law, and foreign legal associations. ● Amicus Brief filed by Marsha Levick on behalf of Juvenile Law Center These briefs will be attached to the record of trial as part of the appellate exhibit which contains this ruling. Having reviewed these briefs, the commission: a. Decided to consider them; and, b. Decided, despite the government's request in footnote 1 of its response, that no supplemental response from the government was necessary. See RC 7.7b. 3. The commission received a special request for relief from the defense (8 February 2008) for the commission to admit into evidence and consider statements allegedly made by Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and reported in a story in the Wall Street 1 AE 95 (Khadr) Page 1 of 188 Journal dated 7 February 2008.