Lawfare is a non-profit multimedia publication dedicated to “Hard National Security Choices.” We provide non-partisan, timely analysis of thorny legal and policy issues through our written, audio, and other content—all of which you can find here. We strive to achieve academic-level depth with magazine-level readability at the pace of news. We aim to improve the discourse on the law and policy of national security with a relentless focus on substantive issues that matter—in a fashion that is useful to policymakers and practitioners, but also accessible to anyone who wants to access it. Our areas of coverage range from national security law, threats to democracy, cybersecurity, executive powers, content moderation, domestic extremism, and foreign policy, among many others.
Lawfare Daily Playlist
Scaling Laws: Daniel Kokotajlo on AI 2040: Plan A
Daniel Kokotajlo, former OpenAI researcher and executive director of the AI Futures Project, joins Kevin Frazier, Director of the AI Innovation and Law Program at Texas Law and Senior Editor …at Lawfare, to detail his policy recommendation—AI 2040: Plan A. It’s a thorough analysis of a policy pathway to delaying superintelligence, which Daniel and his co-authors think is necessary to ensure that the disruptive effects of highly-capable AI systems do not outweigh the benefits.
Kevin asks Daniel to explain scenario scrutiny, address feedback from other AI policy stakeholder such as Tom Davidson, and detail what led him to already alter his estimation of how likely it is that policymakers adopt Plan A.
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Scaling Laws: Daniel Kokotajlo on AI 2040: Plan A
Daniel Kokotajlo, former OpenAI researcher and executive director of the AI Futures Project, joins Kevin Frazier, Director of the AI Innovation and Law Program at Texas Law and Senior Editor at Lawfare, to detail his policy recommendation—AI 2040: Plan A. It’s a thorough analysis of a policy pathway to delaying superintelligence, which Daniel and his co-authors think is necessary to ensure that the disruptive effects of highly-capable AI systems do not outweigh the benefits. Kevin asks …
Daniel Kokotajlo, former OpenAI researcher and executive director of the AI Futures Project, joins Kevin Frazier, Director of the AI Innovation and Law Program at Texas Law and Senior Editor …at Lawfare, to detail his policy recommendation—AI 2040: Plan A. It’s a thorough analysis of a policy pathway to delaying superintelligence, which Daniel and his co-authors think is necessary to ensure that the disruptive effects of highly-capable AI systems do not outweigh the benefits.
Kevin asks Daniel to explain scenario scrutiny, address feedback from other AI policy stakeholder such as Tom Davidson, and detail what led him to already alter his estimation of how likely it is that policymakers adopt Plan A.
Find Scaling Laws on the Lawfare website, and subscribe to never miss an episode.
To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at http://www.patreon.com/lawfare 🏛️. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute 🏛️.Show More
Lawfare Daily: The Court Against the Courts with Steve Vladeck and Kate Klonick
On August 5, Lawfare Senior Editor Kate Klonick sat down for a live discussion on Substack with Georgetown Law Professor Steve Vladeck to discuss his forthcoming Harvard Law Review Foreword, “The Court Against the Courts,” which chronicles institutional attacks on the lower federal courts. Vladeck argues not just that the Court failed to shield district judges from impeachment threats and harassment campaigns, but that it bears “significant responsibility” for what’s happened to them. For …
On August 5, Lawfare Senior Editor Kate Klonick sat down for a live discussion on Substack with Georgetown Law Professor Steve Vladeck to discuss his forthcoming Harvard Law Review Foreword, …“The Court Against the Courts,” which chronicles institutional attacks on the lower federal courts. Vladeck argues not just that the Court failed to shield district judges from impeachment threats and harassment campaigns, but that it bears “significant responsibility” for what’s happened to them.
For more on this, Vladeck also wrote about the article on his Substack.
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Lawfare Daily: The Rise of the Military-Technology Complex with Bernice Yeung
On today’s episode, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sits down with Bernice Yeung, the managing editor at the U.C. Berkeley School of Journalism investigative reporting program and author of a recent feature, “The rise of the military-technology complex,” published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. They discuss the bumpy history of Big Tech’s relationship with U.S. defense contracting, how Silicon Valley has reshaped the Pentagon, and how, in turn, the Pentagon has reshaped …
On today’s episode, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sits down with Bernice Yeung, the managing editor at the U.C. Berkeley School of Journalism investigative reporting program and author of a …recent feature, “The rise of the military-technology complex,” published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. They discuss the bumpy history of Big Tech’s relationship with U.S. defense contracting, how Silicon Valley has reshaped the Pentagon, and how, in turn, the Pentagon has reshaped Silicon Valley.
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Lawfare Daily: Ukraine, Iran, Taiwan, and the Short War Illusion
Some countries are susceptible to believing that with the right military strategy, they can accomplish their goals with a quick war. It’s called the “Short War Illusion,” and as the term suggests, it rarely works out as planned. That includes the two major conflicts currently underway in Ukraine and Iran. And it could include a potential conflict in Taiwan. On today’s podcast, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett speaks with Dara Massicot, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia & …
Some countries are susceptible to believing that with the right military strategy, they can accomplish their goals with a quick war. It’s called the “Short War Illusion,” and as the …term suggests, it rarely works out as planned. That includes the two major conflicts currently underway in Ukraine and Iran. And it could include a potential conflict in Taiwan.
On today’s podcast, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett speaks with Dara Massicot, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia & Eurasia Program; Ariane Tabatabai, Vice President at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a contributing editor at Lawfare, and Julia Curlee, Lawfare Public Service Fellow and 25-year veteran of the CIA. They discuss how the short war illusion is playing out today and how it could play out in a future conflict between China and Taiwan—a topic Julia considered in her recent piece in Lawfare, “The Short-War Illusion: What Iran Teaches Beijing About Taiwan.”
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Lawfare Daily: How Our Growing Software Dependence Threatens National Security
Lawfare Book Review Editor Jonathan Cedarbaum sits down with the Soufan Center’s Executive Director Colin Clarke and Senior Research Fellow Chad Serena, to discuss the Center’s recent report, “Closing the Gap: Software Understanding and U.S. National Security.” They explore what the authors call the “software understanding gap”—the growing disconnect between the rapid pace of software development and our ability to fully understand, assess, and secure increasingly complex systems. They …
Lawfare Book Review Editor Jonathan Cedarbaum sits down with the Soufan Center’s Executive Director Colin Clarke and Senior Research Fellow Chad Serena, to discuss the Center’s recent report, “Closing the …Gap: Software Understanding and U.S. National Security.” They explore what the authors call the “software understanding gap”—the growing disconnect between the rapid pace of software development and our ability to fully understand, assess, and secure increasingly complex systems. They discuss how adversarial state actors and criminal groups can exploit this gap, the ways in which it poses a national security challenge, and what government agencies, private industry, and software developers can do to better mitigate risks and strengthen U.S. cybersecurity.
Additional reading:
Douglas Ghormley, Tod Amon, Christopher Harrison, and Tim Loffredo, “The National Need for Software Understanding: The Present Crisis, Technical Capability Gaps, and Path Forward,” Sandia National Laboratories (March 2025)
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Lawfare Daily: Dispatches from the 2026 Aspen Security Forum
On today’s episode, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien brings you a series of edited conversations from the 2026 Aspen Security Forum, where he sat down with host and founder of the Global Dispatches Podcast and Editor-in-Chief of UN Dispatch Mark Leon Goldberg, American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow and Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies Kori Schake, Lawfare Contributing Editor and the founder of Capitol Peak Strategies Alex Zerden, and President and CEO of the Bulletin …
On today’s episode, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien brings you a series of edited conversations from the 2026 Aspen Security Forum, where he sat down with host and founder of …the Global Dispatches Podcast and Editor-in-Chief of UN Dispatch Mark Leon Goldberg, American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow and Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies Kori Schake, Lawfare Contributing Editor and the founder of Capitol Peak Strategies Alex Zerden, and President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Alexandra Bell.
They discussed the U.S.-Iran war, what’s left of bipartisanship in the Trump era, who from the current administration did—and didn’t—come to Aspen this year, what urgent foreign policy issues were missing from the agenda, and much more.
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Lawfare Daily: Investigating Atrocities in Post-Assad Syria
On today’s podcast, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett speaks with Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, a professor at University of Minnesota Law School and a Commissioner on the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria. They talk about the Commission’s work investigating atrocities that occurred after the fall of the Assad regime, how to think about Syria’s new government and the international community’s response to it, and what it all says about global counterterrorism …
On today’s podcast, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett speaks with Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, a professor at University of Minnesota Law School and a Commissioner on the United Nations Independent International Commission …of Inquiry on Syria. They talk about the Commission’s work investigating atrocities that occurred after the fall of the Assad regime, how to think about Syria’s new government and the international community’s response to it, and what it all says about global counterterrorism strategies.
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Lawfare Daily: Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan Discuss Their Bestseller, ‘Regime Change’
New York Times White House Correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan speak with Lawfare Senior Editor Roger Parloff about their recent bestseller, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” They discuss how close Trump has come to suspending habeas corpus and invoking the Insurrection Act, how the Supreme Court’s immunity decision has shaped his conduct, his vindictive prosecutions and desire for more, his firings of national security professionals at the behest …
New York Times White House Correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan speak with Lawfare Senior Editor Roger Parloff about their recent bestseller, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald …Trump.”
They discuss how close Trump has come to suspending habeas corpus and invoking the Insurrection Act, how the Supreme Court’s immunity decision has shaped his conduct, his vindictive prosecutions and desire for more, his firings of national security professionals at the behest of Laura Loomer, and more.
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Lawfare Daily: Can State Laws Protect Against Misuse of the National Guard?
On today’s podcast, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett sits down with Liza Goitein and Joseph Nunn of the Liberty and Security Program at the Brennan Center, and Lawfare Senior Editor Loren Voss. They talk about the state laws governing the National Guard—what they allow, what they prohibit, and what it means for domestic deployments in the United States. What is the National Guard allowed to do, especially when operating in a hybrid status where the mission is defined by the president but the …
On today’s podcast, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett sits down with Liza Goitein and Joseph Nunn of the Liberty and Security Program at the Brennan Center, and Lawfare Senior Editor Loren …Voss. They talk about the state laws governing the National Guard—what they allow, what they prohibit, and what it means for domestic deployments in the United States. What is the National Guard allowed to do, especially when operating in a hybrid status where the mission is defined by the president but the governor retains command and control? State laws are complex, varied, and sometimes facially unconstitutional.
The Brennan Center recently published a compendium of those state laws at https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-and-territorial-laws-governing-national-guard 🏛️.
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Lawfare Daily: Inside Zelensky’s Disastrous Decision to Fire Ukraine’s Minister of Defense
On today’s episode, Lawfare’s Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina talks to Francis Farrell, a front line reporter at the Kyiv Independent, about the Ukrainian president’s decision to replace the country’s Minister of Defense, the mass protests it caused, and how the decision will impact the course of the war. To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at …
On today’s episode, Lawfare’s Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina talks to Francis Farrell, a front line reporter at the Kyiv Independent, about the Ukrainian president’s decision to replace the country’s Minister …of Defense, the mass protests it caused, and how the decision will impact the course of the war.
To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at http://www.patreon.com/lawfare 🏛️. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute 🏛️.Show More
Lawfare Daily: How To Make a Patriot, with Fabian Hoffman
On today’s episode, Lawfare’s Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina talks to Fabian Hoffman, a senior research fellow at the Programme for Ukraine and Full-Spectrum Threats at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, about what it would take for Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, if the United States had given it the license to do so. To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time …
On today’s episode, Lawfare’s Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina talks to Fabian Hoffman, a senior research fellow at the Programme for Ukraine and Full-Spectrum Threats at the Norwegian Institute for Defence …Studies, about what it would take for Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, if the United States had given it the license to do so.
To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at http://www.patreon.com/lawfare 🏛️. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute 🏛️.Show More
Lawfare Daily: Consent in the Age of AI
Lawfare Senior Editor Renée DiResta sits down with Senior Editor Kate Klonick and Elissa Redmiles, an assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University. They examine the people who create AI-generated sexual content and whether prominent technical proposals can actually prevent AI systems from generating exploitative content. For further reading: Jaron Mink, Lucy Qin, and Elissa M. Redmiles, “‘Unlimited Realm of Exploration and Experimentation’: Methods and Motivations of …
Lawfare Senior Editor Renée DiResta sits down with Senior Editor Kate Klonick and Elissa Redmiles, an assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University. They examine the people who create …AI-generated sexual content and whether prominent technical proposals can actually prevent AI systems from generating exploitative content.
For further reading:
Jaron Mink, Lucy Qin, and Elissa M. Redmiles, “‘Unlimited Realm of Exploration and Experimentation’: Methods and Motivations of AI-Generated Sexual Content Creators”, FAccT ’26: The 2026 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (June 2026)
Renée DiResta and Berin Szóka, “Grok, ‘Censorship,’ & the Collapse of Accountability,” Lawfare (January 2026)
Lucy Qin, Sharon Wang, Yigit Aydinalp, Marin Scarlett, and Elissa M. Redmiles, “‘Did They F***ing Consent to That?’: Safer Digital Intimacy via Proactive Protection Against Image-Based Sexual Abuse,” USENIX (August 2024)
Safe Digital Intimacy.org
Please note that this podcast discusses sexual violence and the harms of image-based sexual abuse. Listener discretion is advised.
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