Todd’s right, Andy Ferguson’s Weekly Standard piece is excellent – whether one agrees with his ultimate take on it or not. The bottom line of the piece, however, is not simply a skepticism about the powers of social science – behavioral economics as the New Social Engineering. It is, rather, a broadly libertarian point, going […]
Author Archive | Kenneth Anderson
Fannie Meltdown?
The Wall Street Journal has a short report today on the testimony by former Fannie and Freddie executives, as well as their government regulators, in front of the Congressionally-mandated Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission – most recently, the Commission heard from Greenspan and the central bankers. A Congressional panel heard clashing views about what caused the […]
Acquiring UAV Technology
By Kenneth Anderson on April 9, 2010 9:50 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Uncategorized, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
I’ve noticed a number of posts and comments around the blogosphere on the spread of UAV technology. Which indeed is happening; many states are developing and deploying UAVs of various kinds. The WCL National Security Law Brief blog, for example, notes that India is now acquiring weaponized UAVs: India is reportedly preparing to have “killer” […]
Opinio Juris Discussions of Targeting of US Citizen
By Kenneth Anderson on April 7, 2010 8:35 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Scott Shane’s report in this morning’s NYT on the Obama administration putting the radical cleric, but US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, on the kill or capture list has stirred a lot of discussion. (Update: let me add Max Fisher’s Atlantic discussion as well.) Scott Shane: The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the […]
Toyota Facing $16 Million Fine …
From an entity that is probably best described not as the US government but as the competition’s board of directors. Your humble blogger Professor Anderson and his Beloved Wife, on the other hand, went out and bought a Camry on the last day of the 0% financing sale. Although mostly engaged in Rational Ignorance on […]
Student Internships and Minimum Wage Laws
The New York Times has a story today essentially noting that many unpaid internships for young people and students violate minimum wage laws. Are any VC readers of the view that enforcement of these minimum wage laws will lead to increased employment of the interns? I’m not being cute; I’d be curious to know if […]
Predator Drone Warfare – Assorted Links
By Kenneth Anderson on April 5, 2010 5:23 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Uncategorized, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
It’s not true that everything I do is about drone warfare, but it has taken a lot of my time lately and, of course, a lot of stuff is happening, both on the operational side as well as legal side. So here’s a little round-up of links, more or less at random. First, the New […]
Inside Baseball on Obama Legal Team Deliberations on National Security
By Kenneth Anderson on March 29, 2010 8:05 am in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Libertarianism, Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Over at Opinio Juris, Julian Ku points to today’s front page NYT story by Charlie Savage detailing secret memos and meetings among the leading lawyers seeking to address national security and terrorism issues, including detentions, drone strikes, the question of armed conflict, and other things. In my posts, I have been focused on the question […]
Christopher Caldwell on the Pain in Spain
Christopher Caldwell, who writes for the Weekly Standard, the Financial Times, and elsewhere, has an outstanding piece in the WS this week on how the financial situation in Spain came about. His description of the Spanish economy and its reliance on housing construction certainly matches my complete wonderment – bewilderment – at the economy of […]
Assassination, Self-Defense, and the Koh Speech
By Kenneth Anderson on March 28, 2010 5:30 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
(Note: I started composing draft posts about Harold Koh’s important ASIL speech, particularly its discussion of drones and targeted killing, and concluded it would be better not to do a post that would turn into an online article, but instead some shorter posts on particular issues, even if they are somewhat random.) Toward the end […]
Drone Warfare Subcommittee Testimony, Up at SSRN
By Kenneth Anderson on March 27, 2010 2:45 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
After getting a number of email requests for this testimony, I’ve posted it up for convenience at SSRN, although it is also available through the hearing page as well. I submitted along with it my earlier Weekly Standard article, Predators Over Pakistan. As I have said here earlier, however, this hearing on March 23 came […]
Harold Koh Statements on Drone Warfare at ASIL Tonight
By Kenneth Anderson on March 25, 2010 11:43 pm in International Human Rights Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Update: I have had a chance to watch the video twice – I strongly recommend watching it, as it adds considerable language to the statements below in the press release. And welcome Instapundit readers and any others. Given how much I have pressed publicly for a statement by the administration’s lawyers, I want to say […]
Benjamin Wittes Comments on His AQ7 Letter at The New Republic
The excitement over the AQ7 ad put out by Liz Cheney’s organization has died down, but Ben Wittes has this very interesting piece up in The New Republic extending discussion of the letter that he drafted, signed by a group of conservative and centrist folks criticizing it. I was one of the signers, and wound up […]
Drone Warfare in House Subcommittee Hearing
By Kenneth Anderson on March 24, 2010 11:38 am in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Yesterday (Tuesday, March 23, 2010) I was pleased to appear as a witness before the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, to discuss drone warfare and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The list of witnesses is here, along with a link to a webcast (which I can’t seem to open), and links to the witness […]
Response from ACLU’s Jonathan Manes on Drones and US Forces
By Kenneth Anderson on March 22, 2010 6:58 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Jonathan Manes, the ACLU lawyer whose work and presentations I have cited a couple of times in posts here at Volokh, and someone for whom, despite some fundamental agreements, I have great respect and like very much, has responded with the following letter. He has given me permission to post it here. The most important […]