Welcome to Just Security! We are delighted you found your way here, and we hope that you will return regularly. If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re interested in the topic that defines our blog: U.S. national security law and policy (or you’re related to one of us). We thought we’d open things up by saying a few words about this project in general, as well as our plans for today and beyond.

Who are we?

We have assembled an extraordinary group of some of the most important and influential minds on U.S. national security law and policy. They include former top attorneys from the Department of State, Department of Justice, and National Security Council; outstanding civil society attorneys from the United States and abroad; some of the most prominent law professors in the field; and other leading voices.

For more background, listen to a podcast interview with the two of us on Lawfare, later today, with our generous host and interviewer, Ben Wittes.

And check out our launch event this Wednesday at NYU’s Washington, DC Center.

What kind of information and analysis will we provide?

Our Board of Editors will provide both immediate reactions to and more reflective analyses of important U.S. national security issues. We hope to become a ready resource for decision-makers, analysts, and practitioners who address difficult U.S. national security law issues, and an invaluable reference for those simply trying to stay abreast of the daily developments in this ever-moving field.

In addition to such one-off content, we will routinely host guest authors—and provide room for structured debates—to ensure that opposing viewpoints are ventilated and that readers have the strongest available analysis from different perspectives. As an example, the weeks ahead will include a debate on NSA surveillance and metadata featuring, among others, Just Security’s Jennifer Granick, Director of Civil Liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society; Orin Kerr, Professor at George Washington University; and Just Security’s Julian Sanchez, fellow at the Cato Institute. We will also include debates on the laws of war and human rights, for example, between Geoff Corn, Professor at South Texas College of Law and formerly the Army’s senior law of war expert in the Office of the Judge Advocate General; Gabor Rona, from Human Rights First; and Just Security’s Derek Jinks. And we will include analyses of developments in foreign jurisdictions of relevance to U.S. rights and security such as from Just Security’s Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Law Professor at University of Minnesota and University of Ulster, and Just Security’s Shaheed Fatima, Barrister at Blackstone Chambers, London.

For a preview of some of these and other forthcoming posts, please visit one of our innovative features: The Pipeline.

We will also begin each morning–before the start of business hours—with a Daily News Roundup and Notes. This feature includes coverage of commentaries and news events from across the world that were already taking place that same day—while you were sleeping.

We also invite you to sign up for our Early Edition — a way to receive in your email inbox each weekday morning the daily roundup of national security stories and a look forward to some of the planned blog content for the day to come.

What opportunities are there for interaction with our readers?

We look forward to engaging our readers through three mediums:

Indeed, the latter two are not automated systems, but rather you will find a “human in the loop.” Also, check out our Twitter widget on the left side of the screen. You will find the feeds of our Board of Editors and guest authors who are on Twitter, as well as our friends over at Lawfare.

Plans for the Day

Our plan is to feature a mix of scheduled content and posts reacting to pressing national security developments of the day.

Here’s part of the schedule for today:

Daily News Roundup and Notes

Jennifer Daskal and Steve Vladeck: Westgate, al Shabaab, and the AUMF

Luis Moreno Ocampo: The ICC as the Sword of Damocles

Daphne Eviatar: Time to Retire the Military Commissions

Michael Schmitt: Five Myths in the Debate about Cyber War

Ryan Goodman: Flip Flops?: The Conflict with Al Qaeda Is (Not) a War

Debate on Metadata and the Fourth Amendment Round I: Jennifer Granick vs. Orin Kerr

Steve Vladeck: The Deeper Lesson from Terrorist Expatriation Proposals

Happy reading!