Hoover Institution: Security by the Book

The Hoover Institution hosted "Security by the Book: Habeas Corpus in Wartime with Amanda Tyler" on Monday, May 14, 2018 from 5:00pm - 6:30pm EST. In her new book, Habeas Corpus in Wartime, Amanda Tyler traces the wartime the Anglo-American legal and political history of habeas corpus in wartime. Join Tyler and Benjamin Wittes for a wide ranging conversation covering the English Habeas Corpus Act, the English suspension framework, the United States Constitution's Suspension Clause, and habeas throughout many American wartime periods, including the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War II, and the War on Terror. (PLaying time: 1:00:30)

Recorded on March 14, 2018 The twenty-first century has been hailed as the Age of Networks. However, in new book “The Square and the Tower,” historian and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson argues that networks have always been with us. From the cults of ancient Rome to the dynasties of the Renaissance, from the founding fathers to Facebook, “The Square and the Tower” tells the story of the rise, fall and rise of networks, shows how network theory can transform our understanding of both the past and the present, and provides a brilliant recasting of the turning points in world history, including the one we’re living through, as a struggle between old hierarchies and new social networks. Jack Goldsmith and Niall Ferguson sit down for a discussion on the history of social networks. (Playing tim: 54:00)

The Hoover Institution hosted "Security by the Book: Max Boot's new book, 'The Road Not Taken,'" on Wednesday, February 28, 2018 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm EST. Max Boot's new book, "The Road Not Taken" chronicles the life of Edward Landsdale, a relatively obscure but crucial figure in American military and foreign policy. In this new biography, Boot reframes Landsdale's legacy to demonstrate his contributions to American diplomacy, from the Philippines to the Vietnam war. While many of Landsdale's policy suggestions were ignored, they were insightful in their recognition of the importance of ideas and ideals in addition to cold and calculating warfare. Benjamin Wittes interviewed Max Boot on the complex role Landsdale played in American military history. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe! (Playiny time: 54:49)

The Hoover Institution hosted "The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World" on Monday, September 11, 2017 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm EST. Jack Goldsmith, working group co-chair, interviewed authors Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro, examining the role that war has played in international relations from the sixteenth century to the present -- a role profoundly transformed by the "Internationalists," who created the rules and institutions that gave us seven decades of unprecedented peace between states. Hathaway and Shapiro argue that as the world stands on the brink of rejecting the global legal order the Internationalists built, this is a moment to understand what is at risk. (Playing time: 46:08)

The Hoover Institution hosted "The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas" on Thursday, June 15, 2017 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm EST. The Hoover Institution's National Security, Technology and Law Working Group, along with Hoover's Washington, DC office, invite you to a discussion of The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas. Jack Goldsmith, working group co-chair and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, will interview author Daniel Drezner about how political polarization, heightened inequality, and eroding trust in authority have ushered in the change. A limited quantity of complimentary copies of the book will be provided to attendees. (Playing time: 43:47)

The Hoover Institution hosted "Privacy & Power: A Transatlantic Dialogue in the Shadow of the NSA-Affair" on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm EST. The Hoover Institution's National Security, Technology and Law Working Group, along with Hoover's Washington, DC office discussed Privacy and Power: A Transatlantic Dialogue in the Shadow of the NSA-Affair. Benjamin Wittes (Hoover working group member and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution), Russell Miller (professor of law at Washington & Lee University School of Law) and Prof. Ralf Poscher (professor of law at University of Freiberg) discussed fundamental differences in the way that Americans and Europeans approach the issues of privacy and intelligence-gathering. Edward Snowden’s revelations of American intelligence-gathering and surveillance activities around the world stirred widespread resentment and dramatic law and policy responses in Europe. It is clear that there is almost nothing on which Americans and Europeans differ so dramatically as the questions of privacy and security. In dozens of contributions from leading commentators, scholars, and policymakers from both sides of the Atlantic, Privacy and Power definitively documents and critically engages with those differences. The book’s opening section acknowledges that Snowden’s revelations, and the startling glimpse they give us into the implications of our new big-data era, challenge us to reconsider our old notions of privacy. The book’s second section, featuring contributions from Benjamin Wittes (Brookings) and Anne Peters (Heidelberg Max Planck Institute), distills, embodies, and frames the transatlantic debate on these issues in these succinct terms: “Germany needs to grow up” and “American needs to obey the law”. The book’s third section consists in a collection of chapters from leading American and European privacy law experts that both substantiates the transatlantic divide and exposes the diversity of views within those spheres. A fourth section features commentary from experts on the supranational and international law implicated by these issues, thereby giving the European Union privacy and data-protection regimes the central role in the debate they are due. The book’s final section concludes with a collection of cultural commentary offering profound and challenging insights into the deeper causes of the American and European differences on these issues. (Playing time: 54:34)

The Hoover Institution hosts a discussion on "How America Lost its Secrets" with author Edward Epstein on Wednesday, February 1, 2017 from 5:00pm - 7:0pm EST. The Hoover Institution's National Security, Technology and Law Working Group, along with Hoover's Washington, DC office, invite you to a discussion with author of How America Lost its Secrets, Edward Epstein. Hoover working group member and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Benjamin Wittes will interview Epstein, who will discuss hacker turned avenging angel Edward Snowden while revealing the vulnerabilities of our national security system. After details of American government surveillance were published in 2013, Edward Snowden, formerly a subcontracted IT analyst for the NSA, became the center of an international controversy: Was he a hero, traitor, whistle-blower, spy? Was his theft legitimized by the nature of the information he exposed? When is it necessary for governmental transparency to give way to subterfuge? Edward Jay Epstein brings a lifetime of journalistic and investigative acumen to bear on these and other questions, delving into both how our secrets were taken and the man who took them. He makes clear that by outsourcing parts of our security apparatus, the government has made classified information far more vulnerable; how Snowden sought employment precisely where he could most easily gain access to the most sensitive classified material; and how, though he claims to have acted to serve his country, Snowden is treated as a prized intelligence asset in Moscow, his new home.

The Hoover Institution's National Security, Technology and Law Working Group, along with Hoover's Washington, DC office, invite you to a discussion with award-winning author Christopher Moran as he digs deep into the tumultuous relationship between the CIA and former agents who try to go public about their careers. Hoover working group member and senior fellow, Jack Goldsmith will interview Christopher Moran on his new book, Company Confessions. Drawing on interviews; the private correspondence of such legendary spies as Allen Dulles, William Colby, and Richard Helms; and declassified CIA files, Company Confessions examines why America's spies are so willing to share their stories, the damage inflicted when they leak the nation's secrets, and the fine line between censorship on the grounds of security and censorship for the sake of reputation.

The Hoover Institution's National Security, and Law Working Group, along with Hoover's Washington, DC office, invite you to a discussion on the unique relationship between the President and the intelligence community. Hoover working group member and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Jack Goldsmith will interview author David Priess on his new book, The President's Book of Secrets. The interview will take an in depth look into the top-secret document known as the President's Daily Brief, or "the Book" as intelligence officials like to call it.

INTERVIEW WITH SPECIAL GUEST: Stephen Budiansky Benjamin Wittes interviews author Stephen Budiansky on his new book, Code Warriors: NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union. The interview takes a look at the NSA's origins, its war against the Soviet Union and how the war relates to the Edward Snowden revelations.

INTERVIEW WITH SPECIAL GUEST: Jefferson Powell Jack Goldsmith’s interview with Jefferson Powell on his new book, Targeting Americans: The Constitutionality of the U.S. Drone War. The interview focuses on the legal debate surrounding drone strikes, the use of which has expanded significantly under the Obama Presidency as part of the continuing war against terror. Despite the political salience of the legal questions raised by targeted killing, the author asserts that there has been remarkably little careful analysis of the fundamental legal question: the constitutionality of the policy.

INTERVIEW WITH SPECIAL GUEST: Adam Segal Jack Goldsmith interviews Adam Segal about his new book, The Hacked World Order, which begins at what Segal calls “year Zero”—sometime between June 2012 and June 2013—explaining that the events in that year ushered in a new era of geopolitical maneuvering in cyberspace, with great implications for security, privacy, and the international system. These changes, he suggests, have the potential to produce unintended and unimaginable problems for anyone with an internet connection.

INTERVIEW WITH SPECIAL GUEST: Orde Kittrie Jack Goldsmith interviews Orde Kittrie on his new book, Lawfare: Law as a Weapon of War, examining the deployment and impact of lawfare, the role played by the private sector, and real-world examples of its use by the United States, China, Iran, and Israel.