The Lawfare Podcast

Dan Drezner on Zombies, Viruses, and Toddlers

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Joining Benjamin Wittes in the virtual jungle studio is Daniel Drezner, professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and the author of two po...

Ben Hubbard on MBS

31 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Saudi Arabia continues to be a mainstay of newspaper headlines, whether it be for its oil price war with Russia or for news about Turkish indictments ...

Coronavirus Around the World

28 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, it can be difficult to keep track of how the virus has spread and how different countries have r...

How the State Department and the Defense Department are Responding to the Covid-19 Pandemic

27 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this bonus edition of the Lawfare Podcast, we have combined two conversations about about how the Department of State and the Department of Defense...

Baybars Örsek on Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Fact-Checking

26 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of Lawfare's Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Baybars Örsek, the Director of th...

Shorts: How Do You Spy When the World is Shut Down?

25 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Like a marriage, a healthy relationship between an intelligence officer and an asset usually features ample attention and extensive energy. And of cou...

Freedom House on 'Freedom in the World'

24 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Since 1974, Freedom House has compiled the “Freedom in the World” report, a comparative assessment of global rights and civil liberties that ranks...

Alina Polyakova and Torrey Taussig on 'The Democracy Playbook'

21 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Democracies around the world are under assault, with their norms and institutions undermined by authoritarian actors. From Hungary to India and beyond...

Steve Vladeck on Emergency Powers and Coronavirus

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What can the president do in a national emergency? What limits what the president can do? What authorizes the president to do all those things he can ...

Rebecca Katz on Global Health Security and the Coronavirus Response

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Rebecca Katz is the director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center. She also teaches course...

Kate Starbird on Pandemics and Infodemics

16 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of Lawfare's Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Kate Starbird, an Associate Profes...

Josh Sharfstein on Coronavirus

14 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Josh Sharfstein is the vice dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also served as the secretary of the Maryland Department of...

Joshua R. Fattal on Fighting Disinformation with the Foreign Agents Registration Act

12 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Lawfare’s Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Joshua R. Fattal about a fascinating l...

Congress and Corona

11 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Since we are recording remotely due to coronavirus concerns, it is a good day to discuss the congressional response to coronavirus. Benjamin Wittes sp...

Joseph Nye on "Do Morals Matter?: Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump"

07 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We ask a lot of questions about foreign policy on this podcast. Why do certain countries make certain decisions? What are the interests of the players...

Lisa Kaplan and Sophie Lawton on Clickbait Craft Videos and Influence Campaigns

05 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Lawfare’s Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Alina Polyakova and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Lisa Kaplan and Sophie Lawton of Al...

The Lawfare Podcast Bonus Edition: The Don McGahn Decision

05 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On Friday afternoon, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision concerning the House of Representatives' efforts to compel Don McGahn, Don...

A Trip Around Africa with Judd Devermont and Emilia Columbo

03 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The population of Africa is projected to double by 2050, giving the continent one quarter of the world's people by then. Nigeria alone will have a lar...

Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig on 'A Very Stable Genius'

29 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig are reporters at The Washington Post and the authors of the new book, 'A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing...

Bridget Barrett and Daniel Kreiss on the Chaos of Social Media Advertising

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Lawfare’s Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Bridget Barrett and Daniel Kreiss of t...

The Lawfare Podcast Bonus Edition: Ben Buchanan on 'The Hacker and the State'

26 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Buchanan is a professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a scholar on cybersecurity and statecraft. He has a new book ou...

Clapper, Hayden, and McCabe on the Worldwide Threat Briefing

25 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Every year for a quarter of a century, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, or both, hav...

Monaco and Yan on Coronavirus

22 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lisa Monaco was Barack Obama's counterterrorism and Homeland Security advisor in the White House, and headed the Justice Department's national securit...

Brendan Nyhan on the Empirical Effects of Disinformation

20 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Lawfare’s Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Brendan Nyhan, a professor of politica...

The Lawfare Podcast Bonus Edition: Jessica Stern on Radovan Karadzic

20 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jessica Stern, who served on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, has a remarkable skill: she interviews really bad people...

Andrew Bacevich on 'The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory'

18 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In what ways did American foreign policy fail to capitalize on victory in the Cold War? Andrew Bacevich, professor emeritus at Boston University and c...

Patrick Radden Keefe on 'Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland'

15 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, Patrick Radden Keefe, a staff writer for the New Yorker, came across the obituary of a woman named Dolours Price, a former member of the Iris...

Special Edition: The National Security Law Guys Talk Lt. Col. Vindman, Roger Stone and War Powers

14 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lawfare founder Bobby Chesney and Lawfare contributing editor Steve Vladeck host the weekly National Security Law Podcast from the University of Texas...

Alex Stamos on the Hard Tradeoffs of the Internet

13 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of Lawfare's Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Evelyn Douek and Kate Klonick spoke with Alex Stamos, the director of the Sta...

Afshon Ostovar on Iran's Revolutionary Guard

12 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Afshon Ostovar is the associate chair for research and an assistant professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is als...

Joshua Yaffa on Putin’s Russia

08 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Russia continues to sporadically poke its head into American media headlines, whether it be for its role in Syria or for anxieties about fresh electio...

The Lawfare Podcast Special Edition: An "Election Meltdown" in Iowa

07 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The 2020 election cycle opened up with a dramatic failure, as the Iowa caucus was marred by a delayed announcement of the caucus results and an abunda...

Special Edition: The Senate Votes to Acquit President Donald Trump

06 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to acquit President Donald J. Trump of abuse of power, by a vote of 48-52, and obstruction of Congress, by a vote of 4...

Leon Neyfakh on Iran–Contra and Other Scandals

04 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Leon Neyfakh is the co-creator and former host of Slow Burn, which won the iHeartRadio podcast award for Podcast of the Year last year. Now, he's the ...

The National Security Law Podcast Guys Talk Bolton

01 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lawfare founder Bobby Chesney and Lawfare contributing editor Steve Vladeck, both of the University of Texas Law School, host the National Security La...

Elise Thomas on Disinformation and the Australia Fires

30 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For the past several months, Australia has been struck by massive bushfires like nothing seen before in recent memory. As the country has grappled wit...

An Impeachment Trial Update

28 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We have an impeachment trial going on. We've had hours and hours of presentation by the House managers, and hours of presentation by the president's d...

Michael Schwirtz on Russia's Lethal Actions in Europe

25 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The past few years have seen an uptick in Russian covert actions across Europe, including assassinations and attempted killings of people in Ukraine, ...

Renee DiResta on Disinformation and Misinformation From Vaccines to the GRU

23 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode of Lawfare’s Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Alina Polyakova and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Renee DiResta, the technical...

'Unmaking the Presidency'

22 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office," by Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes, was published today. The Br...

The Lawfare Podcast Special Edition: Senate Trial Preview

21 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Senate impeachment trial of President Trump starts Tuesday. The President now has a legal team. And over the weekend, both the House impeachment m...

Shorts: The Sordid History of Impeachment

19 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump is set to begin on Jan. 21, and the question of what constitutes an impeachable offense is sure to fea...

Batya Ungar-Sargon on the Anti-Semitic Violence in New York

18 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Batya Ungar-Sargon is the opinion editor of The Forward, the Jewish newspaper published out of New York City. She has been among the chroniclers, both...

Bobby Chesney and Danielle Citron on Deep Fakes

16 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of the Arbiters of Truth series, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with law professors Bobby Chesney and Danielle Citron about dee...

Imagining an Impeachment Trial

15 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There's going to be a House vote tomorrow to send the impeachment articles over to the Senate. Then there's going to be a little parade where the appo...

The National Security Law Podcast Guys Talk Soleimani

11 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As part of Lawfare's continuing coverage of the killing of Iranian Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani, we are bringing you an edited version of the la...

What Fresh Disinformation Hell Awaits in 2020?

09 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s 2020, and The Lawfare Podcast's Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation is back for the new year. Quinta Jurecic sat down with cohosts Evely...

Lawfare AMA 2020

08 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

To kick off this year of The Lawfare Podcast, we wanted to hear from you. You tweeted your questions and you left us voicemails, and we did our best t...

Special Edition: Law and the Soleimani Strike

06 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On Friday, the Lawfare Podcast hosted a conversation on the wide-ranging policy implications of the U.S. strike that killed Iran’s Islamic Revoluti...

Special Edition: The Soleimani Strike and Its Fallout

03 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The American drone strike last night that killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, is a seismic event in U.S.-Iranian relatio...

Upheaval and Repression in Iran

01 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Iran is in turmoil. Protests erupted across the country last month, sparked by the government's decision to triple the price of gasoline. The Iranian ...

Danielle Citron on Feminism and National Security

28 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Live from the #NatSecGirlSquad Conference in Washington, DC, on December 12, 2019, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Danielle Citron, professor of law at ...

What's Next for Impeachment

24 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On Thursday, December 19, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Before ...

Amanda Sloat on Boris Johnson and Brexit

21 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, following a resounding victory by Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party in British elections, Members of Parliament have backed Johnson’...

Peter Pomerantsev on the War Against Reality

19 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of our Arbiters of Truth series, Alina Polyakova and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Peter Pomerantsev, a research fellow at the SNF Agora I...

Peter Bergen on 'Trump and His Generals'

17 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

You probably know Peter Bergen from his work at CNN, his books on terrorism and national security, or perhaps his role as vice president at New Americ...

Countering Chinese Espionage

14 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Recently, former CIA officer Jerry Lee was arrested and sentenced for his role in misusing classified information. At the same time, reporting indicat...

Tiffany Li on Privacy and Disinformation

12 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from Lawfare's Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation in the run-up to the 2020 election, Quinta Jurecic, Evelyn Douek, and Alina ...

Bonus Edition: Michael Horowitz vs. the Committee with No Bull

12 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss his recently released report on the...

Investigations All the Way Down

11 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We have articles of impeachment. We have a very long inspector general report on the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation. And we have a Lawfare Po...

Bonus Edition: The House Intelligence Committee vs. the House Judiciary Committee with No Bull

10 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In a marathon day, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Judiciary and Intelligence Committee staffers Barry Berke, Daniel Goldman and St...

Cybersecurity Futures

07 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Wargaming has long been a staple of military strategizing, but how do we plan for the future in cyberspace, a realm where governments do not hold a mo...

Another Week of Impeachment

06 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's another week of impeachment, and we thought it warranted gathering everyone around the table to talk about it. Margaret Taylor, David Priess, Sus...

David Kaye on Policing Speech Online

05 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode of our Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation in the run-up to the 2020 election, Quinta Jurecic and Evelyn Douek spoke with Davi...

Senator Kaine on War Powers and the Coming Impeachment Trial

03 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Senator Tim Kaine is perhaps best known as Hillary Clinton's 2016 vice presidential running mate. For purposes of Lawfare, however, he is better under...

Tamara Cofman Wittes and Brian Egan on Law, Policy, and the U.S. Role in the Middle East

30 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, Tamara Cofman Wittes, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, ...

Brian Kalt on Presidential Inability

26 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Brian Kalt is a professor of law at Michigan State University. In 2012, he wrote "Constitutional Cliffhangers, " a book about all of the gaps in and t...

The Week that Was on Impeachment

23 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's the week it all went public. What had been dry pages of deposition transcript turned into live witnesses, sometimes many of them a day, in front ...

Bonus Edition: Fiona Hill and David Holmes vs. the Committee with No Bull

22 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On Thursday, Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council Russia adviser, and David Holmes, counselor for political affairs at the U.S. embassy in...

Ben Nimmo on the Whack-a-Mole Game of Disinformation

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In a new episode of Lawfare's Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation in the run-up to the 2020 election, Quinta Jurecic, Evelyn Douek, and Alina P...

Bonus Edition: Laura Cooper and David Hale vs. the Committee with No Bull

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The evening testimony on Nov. 20 extended into the night, so we are bringing the podcast version to you this morning. The House Intelligence Committee...

The Lawfare Podcast Bonus Edition: Gordon Sondland vs the Committee with No Bull

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It was another exciting day at the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified i...

The Lawfare Podcast Bonus Edition: Volker and Morrison vs The Committee with No Bull

20 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the afternoon of Nov. 20, the committee heard from Tim Morrison, the former senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council,...

The Lawfare Podcast Bonus Edition: Vindman and Williams vs The Committee with No Bull

20 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On the morning of Nov. 20, the committee heard testimony from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, U.S. Army officer and the top Ukraine expert on the National...

Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes on Catching the Cybercriminal

20 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On Monday, Benjamin Wittes moderated a discussion with Senator Mark Warner and Representative Jim Himes at NYU Law School as part of the "Catching the...

Quite a Week

16 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Roger Stone was convicted on seven counts by a jury in the District of Columbia, and three State Department officials testified before the ...

The Lawfare Podcast Bonus Edition: Marie Yovanovitch vs The Committee with No Bull

16 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified before the House Intelligence Committee as a part of the impeachment investigation. Yovanovit...

Zoe Darmé on the Facebook Oversight Board

14 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Facebook has long been plagued by complaints about unreliable and arbitrary decisions about what does and doesn't appear on the site. In an experiment...

Bonus Edition: George Kent and Bill Taylor vs The Committee with No Bull

14 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On Wednesday, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held its first in a series of public hearings pursuant to its impeachment inquiry i...

2020 Candidates and Executive Power

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As the 2020 race heats up, candidates spar over healthcare, immigration reform, affordable housing, and criminal justice issues. Unfortunately, substa...

The Report, Episode 15: Mueller's Report

10 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It Friday, March 22, 2019. It’s been nearly two years since Robert Mueller was first appointed Special Counsel. Now, he’s ready to submit a final ...

A New Arab Spring in Iraq and Lebanon?

09 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past several weeks, popular protest movements have emerged in both Iraq and Lebanon, expressing widespread discontent with the status quo in ...

Daphne Keller on Legal Liability for Tech Platforms

07 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of the Arbiters of Truth series—Lawfare's new podcast series on disinformation in the run-up to the 2020 election—Quinta Jurecic a...

Impeachment and Election Security

06 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Impeachment has dominated the news for more than a month, but the flurry of headlines often leads to more confusion than clarity. Where exactly are we...

The Report, Episode 14: The Fixer Flips

04 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We’re almost at the end of our story. This episode will cover the final set of activity that the Special Counsel examines for possible obstruction o...

In the Brush in Brooks County

02 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Last month at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the Robert S. Strauss Center for...

Introducing the Arbiters of Truth

31 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This is the first episode in a new special series—"Arbiters of Truth"—about disinformation and online speech in the lead up to the 2020 election. ...

Phil Mudd on CIA and Enhanced Interrogations

30 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Philip Mudd is currently a counterterrorism and national security analyst with CNN, but before that, Mudd spent 25 years working at the Central Intell...

Special Edition: Syria and The Al-Baghdadi Raid

29 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, died in a raid conducted by U.S. Special Opera...

The Report, Episode 13: Pardons on the Table

27 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s January 2018. Paul Manafort and Rick Gates are in a whole lot of trouble. The past is catching up to them. Three months earlier, they’d both ...

Sloat and Thompson on the Shenanigans in the UK

26 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's been a wild few weeks in British politics: possible new elections scheduled; Brexit impending and then delayed (we think); a possible Brexit deal...

Shorts: What William Taylor’s Testimony Adds to the Ukraine Story

23 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Amb. William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, testified on Tuesday in a close-door meeting with Congressional committees involved in the impe...

James Verini and Dan Gabriel on the Battle for Mosul

23 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014, the precipitous fall of the ancient city of Mosul signaled the sudden rise to power of the Islamic State, a group that would soon declare a n...

The Report, Episode 12: It Will Never Get Out

20 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s February 6, 2018. Don McGahn is back in the Oval Office with President Trump and the new White House chief of staff John Kelly. The New York Ti...

What's Going on in Syria

19 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's been a horrible week in northeastern Syria. The U.S. abandoned its Kurdish allies after the president had a conversation by phone with Turkish Pr...

Chesney, Monaco, McCord, and Rasmussen on Domestic Terrorism

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A couple of weeks ago, Lawfare and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law sponsored a series of panels at the Texas Tribune Festival. F...

The Report, Episode 11: A Special Counsel

13 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s May 17, 2017. White House Counsel Don McGahn is in the Oval Office with the president. McGahn’s job is to represent the office of the preside...

Leah Sottile on Bundyville and American Radicalism

12 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

At his rally in Minneapolis earlier this week, President Trump received voluntary security from an unexpected source: the Oathkeepers, a far-right mil...

Jim Baker and Susan Landau on 'Moving the Encryption Policy Conversation Forward'

09 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Encryption and going dark splashed across the headlines in the wake of the 2015 San Bernardino attack, when the FBI and Apple went to court over acces...

The Report, Episode 10: You're Fired

06 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s March 7, 2017. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the nomination of Rod Rosenstein to be the Deputy Attorney General. Rosen...