Governance by Shakedown
Lawfareby Mark Pollack1 Sept 2026
In late February, a routine contract dispute between the Pentagon and the artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic escalated into something far more extraordinary.
Lawfare
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top 54%White House Unveils Program to Authorize Private-Sector Cyber Surveillance and Disruption Operations
Lawfareby Aaron Cooper, Philip Chertoff1 Sept 2026
On Aug. 12, President Trump signed a national security presidential memorandum titled “Expanding Capabilities to Combat Transnational Cyber-Enabled Crime,” which directs the departments of Justice...
The “GEC Files” Don’t Show a Censorship Operation
Lawfareby Renée DiResta31 Aug 2026
On Aug. 21, Sarah B. Rogers, the State Department’s under secretary for public diplomacy, published a 19-post thread on X announcing what she called “GEC’S PARTICIPATION IN 2020 ELECTION...
The First Amendment Problems With Meta’s $17 Billion Deal
Lawfareby Jeff Kosseff31 Aug 2026
Elected officials and commentators hailed Meta’s settlement with 47 states as a massive victory that will protect teenagers from addictive social media.
Understanding Al-Shabaab’s Recruitment Pipeline
Lawfareby Ismail Abukar30 Aug 2026
Editor’s Note: Even 25 years after 9/11, researchers still question what drives terrorist recruitment.
The Week That Was
Lawfareby Sarah Willrich29 Aug 2026
Julia Curlee analyzed why so many purged national security officials choose to remain silent about their treatment.
Invisible Source Skew
Lawfareby Kate Klonick, Renée DiResta28 Aug 2026
Plenty has been written about foreign actors manipulating information ecosystems with artificial intelligence (AI), and about the proliferation of AI-generated slop polluting feeds and search...
U.K. Supreme Court Opens Door for Spyware Victims to Sue Foreign States
Lawfareby Siena Anstis, Natalia Krapiva, Kate Pundyk28 Aug 2026
On July 27, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom issued its highly anticipated decision in The Kingdom of Bahrain v. Shehabi and another (Shehabi).
Program Assistant, Artificial Intelligence
Lawfareby Tyler McBrien28 Aug 2026
We are pleased to announce that we are a hiring a program assistant to support the day-to-day operations of our AI Research Program, which bridges technical, legal, and policy expertise to inform...
China's AI-Enabled APT Operations Are Getting Interesting
Lawfareby Tom Uren28 Aug 2026
China's AI-Enabled APT Operations Are Getting Interesting A new report describes how a Chinese cyberespionage outfit is using artificial intelligence (AI) to beef up its malware arsenal.
Rational Security: The “All Takin’ and No Givin’” Edition
Lawfareby Scott Anderson, Julia Curlee, Benjamin Wittes, Alex Zerden27 Aug 2026
This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes, Public Service Fellow Julia Curlee, and Contributing Editor Alex Zerden to talk through the week’s big news in...
The Boat Strikes Aren’t Part of a War. They’re Murder.
Lawfareby Sarah Harrison27 Aug 2026
On Sept. 2, 2025, the U.S. military bombed a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people. After the first strike, the drone circled back on the wreckage.
Replacement Through Knowledge Acquisition
Lawfareby William Dinneen, Ben Vagle26 Aug 2026
Certain species of wasps reproduce by laying eggs inside the bodies of caterpillars; when the eggs hatch, the larvae consume the caterpillars whole.
Lawfare Daily: Censorship Incentives with Julia Curlee and Mike Feinberg
Lawfareby Benjamin Wittes, Julia Curlee, Michael Feinberg, Jen Patja26 Aug 2026
Lawfare Public Service Fellow Julia Curlee has written an article on the incentives facing intelligence community members when they are purged from government.
The Censorship Machine: Silencing the National Security Workforce
Lawfareby Julia Curlee26 Aug 2026
The math doesn’t lie. Since January 2025, the Trump administration has driven thousands of national security professionals out of their jobs.
Can the Midterms Be 'Stolen' On Jan. 3? It's Complicated.
Lawfareby Molly Roberts25 Aug 2026
The date Jan. 6 has outsize significance in the United States for the worst reasons. Jan. 3, however, most Americans have never heard of. Ideally, it will stay that way.
The Federal Trade Commission After Trump v. Slaughter
Lawfareby J.B. Branch25 Aug 2026
In the days following the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Slaughter, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released an AI Policy Statement that may prove significant for reasons extending well...
OLC’s Dangerous, and Wrong, Opinion About the Posse Comitatus Act
Lawfareby Chris Mirasola24 Aug 2026
On Aug. 14, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) released an opinion concluding that military personnel can arrest individuals who unlawfully enter a national defense area (NDA)...
Shutdown Reform’s Constitutional Blind Spot: The Two-Year Clause
Lawfareby Matthew Lawrence, Mark Nevitt, Amelia Powell24 Aug 2026
Congress and the president are once again signaling a possible government shutdown as early as this September.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Gaza Ceasefire
Lawfareby Erik Skare23 Aug 2026
Editor’s Note: Although Hamas commands the lion’s share of attention in the fight for Gaza, another important actor is Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).