I’m delighted to report that Stewart Baker will be joining us as a coblogger. Stewart — one of UCLA School of Law’s most illustrious alumni — has served as Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, as General Counsel of the National Security Administration, and as General Counsel to the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction; he has also long been a partner at Steptoe & Johnson. He has been Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as many other governmental, industry, and nonprofit commissions and task forces. He is a man who knows things, and is even allowed to tell us some of what he knows.
Stewart’s new book, Skating on Stilts, will be published by the Hoover Press this year; the book discusses the dangers posed to national security — which is to say to our security — by various new technologies, and what needs to be done to deal with those dangers. Readers of Stewart’s work will recognize that he in many ways leans more towards the conservative rather than the libertarian, and I expect that Stewart and some of our more libertarian readers will find much to disagree about. But I’m sure that Stewart’s posts will be interesting and valuable to all our readers, whatever their politics.
B.D. says:
There is potential here for some explosive in-fighting. Many libertarian-leaning conservatives favor a strong internationalist foreign policy, as well as a well-funded and powerful national security apparatus. Domestic policy and national security policy are sufficiently unrelated to allow someone to be “libertarian” on one and “statist” on the other.
I look forward to it.
January 25, 2010, 1:59 pmGainesvilleGuest says:
National Security policy provides some of the most interesting areas of disagreement (and agreement) between conservatives and libertarians (and between fellow libertarians). I look forward to reading Mr. Baker’s posts.
January 25, 2010, 2:14 pmDave N. says:
Stewart Baker,
Welcome to the VC. I look forward to your hearing what you have to say.
As an aside, please allow comments to your posts. Some co-conspirators do not (cough, cough, Jim Lindgrin). But even though an occassional troll makes his or her way to the comments, the back-and-forth sharpens both sides and makes for much better discussion.
January 25, 2010, 2:15 pmOrin Kerr says:
Stewart, meet Tim Nuccio and Buddy Hinton. Tim & Buddy, meet Stewart.
January 25, 2010, 3:21 pmzuch says:
Yeah. Like that’s the two choices. No thanks. ;-)
Cheers,
January 25, 2010, 4:01 pmarbitraryaardvark says:
NSA? CFR? Conspiracy theorists take note.
January 25, 2010, 4:26 pmzuch says:
Let me add my welcome to Mr. Baker as well … and state that I look forward to some productive and informative discussions.
Cheers,
January 25, 2010, 4:33 pmArthurKirkland says:
Welcome, Stewart Baker.
January 25, 2010, 5:42 pmThe hard-righters around here have been taking heavy casualties, so you should be proud to have gotten the call when Prof. Volokh summoned much-needed hard-core conservative reinforcements.
I look forward to your contributions.
A.S. says:
Wow. Impressive get!
January 25, 2010, 6:06 pmJM Hanes says:
A very timely and welcome addition!
I second the request for comments. As a non-lawyer, I’ve benefitted from the wealth of experience distributed amongst your readership, as well as some of the lively disagreements. Wading through the chaff (to which I sometimes contribute, alas!) is not all that difficult.
January 25, 2010, 6:33 pmMark Field says:
I think he should only enter into this new experience with eyes wide open. Make him read the Che Guevara thread. If that doesn’t scare him off, he’s a keeper.
January 25, 2010, 11:29 pmChalmers says:
I know this really is really boring and you are skipping on the next comment, but I just wanted to throw you a big thanks – you cleared up some things for me!
September 9, 2010, 12:09 pm