Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents is a series that provides primary source documents and expert commentary on various topics relating to the worldwide effort to combat terrorism, as well as efforts by the United States and other nations to protect their national security interests. Volume 141, Hybrid Warfare and the Gray Zone Threat, considers the mutation of the international security environment brought on by decades of unrivaled U.S. conventional military power. The term "hybrid warfare" encompasses conventional warfare, irregular warfare, cyberwarfare, insurgency, criminality, economic blackmail, ethnic warfare, "lawfare", and the application of low-cost but effective technologies to thwart high-cost technologically advanced forces. This volume is divided into five sections covering different aspects of this topic, each of which is introduced by expert commentary written by series editor Douglas C. Lovelace, Jr. This volume contains thirteen useful documents exploring various facets of the shifting international security environment, including a detailed report on hybrid warfare issued by the Joint Special Operations University and a White Paper on special operations forces support to political warfare prepared by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, as well as a GAO report and a CRS report covering similar topics. Specific coverage is also given to topics such as cybersecurity and cyberwarfare, the efficacy of sanctions in avoiding and deterring hybrid warfare threats, and the intersection of the military and domestic U.S. law enforcement.

Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents is a series that provides primary source documents and expert commentary on various topics relating to the worldwide effort to combat terrorism, as well as efforts by the United States and other nations to protect their national security interests. Volume 142, Security Strategies of the Second Obama Administration: 2015 Developments, examines the major national security and military strategy documents released by the Obama administration during 2015: the National Security Strategy; the National Military Strategy; the National Intelligence Strategy; and the Department of Defense Cyber Strategy. This volume is intended as a sequel to Volume 137 of this series, which considered the de facto national security strategy of the Obama administration prior to the release of these documents. It is divided into four topical sections, each of which is introduced by a commentary written by series editor Douglas C. Lovelace, Jr. In addition to the documents listed above, this volume also contains recent reports analyzing those documents, as well as a legal update on the current status of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and a consideration of the War Powers Resolution.

Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents is a series that provides primary source documents and expert commentary on various topics relating to the worldwide effort to combat terrorism, as well as efforts by the United States and other nations to protect their national security interests. Volume 147, Assessing the 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy, evaluates the changes in U.S. national security policy indicated in the National Security Strategy published by the Trump administration in 2017, as well as the U.S. National Defense Strategy, a summary of which was made available to the public in 2018. The volume also takes a close look at the comparable strategy documents of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China (PRC), the two greatest competitors of the U.S. in the global power structure, in addition to considering the U.S. security posture in the broader international context. In addition to including the text of the 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy and the 2018 U.S. National Defense Strategy, this volume also includes the Russian Federation's Foreign Policy Concept, National Security Strategy, and Military Doctrine, and China's national defense, military strategy, and Asia-Pacific cooperation documents, as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping's October 2017 speech to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China outlining the way forward for the PRC. Two 2017 CRS reports examining U.S. security strategy in the international context are also included: U.S. Role in the World: Background and Issues for Congress and A Shift in the International Security Environment: Potential Implications for Defense-Issues for Congress.

Volume 105 of Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents, Narco-Terrorism, brings researchers up to date on U.S. and international efforts to stem terrorism related to drug trafficking. In the pages of this volume, readers will find both legal documents from criminal cases against narco-terrorists and governmental reports on how to approach the problem on a broader level. After showing recent trends in combating narco-terrorism globally, Volume 105 focuses on the rising drug crises in Colombia and Afghanistan. Researchers will find in this volume not just U.S. agencies' major reports on international drug-trafficking but also similarly comprehensive reports from international organizations, from NGOs to the U.N. These reports place a particular focus on the connection between terrorist activity and the global narcotics trade. The section on Colombia, while updating readers on the international struggle with that country's drug cartels, also includes an analysis of the political, diplomatic, and economic challenges in intervening there. The Afghanistan portion of the volume shows how the U.S. has tried to confront the heroin trade that has funded the Taliban there, including an example of how the U.S. government has used criminal prosecutions domestically to curb that trade.

Examining legal argumentation by states and other actors in the settings where it mostly transpires - outside of courts, Talking International Law challenges the realist assumption that legal argumentation is largely inconsequential. Addressing a gap in scholarship within international law and international relations theory, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of why it occurs, how, where, and to what effect by exploring the phenomenon in a range of issue areas, from security and human rights, to the environment, trade, and intellectual property. Diplomats and other governmental actors are the principal participants in international legal discourse, but intergovernmental officials, non-governmental organizations, academics, corporations, and even non-state armed groups also engage in "law talk." Through close examination of legal arguments in political and other settings, the authors uncover various motives these actors have for making legal claims - including persuasion, strategic calculations, assertions of identity, and the felt need to legitimate one's actions - or to delegitimate those of an adversary. Legal argumentation can have short-term and long-term effects, both intended and unintended, on immediate participants or a wider net of actors. By bringing together distinguished scholars with diverse perspectives and senior practitioners from around the world who engage in such argumentation themselves, the book offers a unique exposure to the multi-faceted practice of legal argumentation and thereby deepens our understanding of how international law actually operates in international affairs.

Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents is a series that provides primary source documents and expert commentary on various topics relating to the worldwide effort to combat terrorism, as well as efforts by the United States and other nations to protect their national security interests. Volume 140, The Cyber Threat considers U.S. policy in relation to cybersecurity and cyberterrorism, and examines opposing views on cybersecurity and international law by nations such as Russia and China. The documents in this volume include testimony of FBI officials before Congressional committees, as well as detailed reports from the Strategic Studies Institute/U.S. Army War College Press and from the Congressional Research Service. The detailed studies in this volume tackling the core issues of cybersecurity and cyberterrorism include: Legality in Cyberspace; An Adversary View and Distinguishing Acts of War in Cyberspace; and Assessment Criteria, Policy Considerations, and Response Implications.

Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents Volume 103, Global Issues, continues the recent changes to this series that have justified a new publisher-brand, a new title, and a re-designed cover. That new title emphasizes the expert commentary now provided by three leading scholars in the field: Doug Lovelace, Director of the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute, Kristen Boon of Seton Hall Law School, and Aziz Huq of the University of Chicago School of Law. In this particular volume, Lovelace updates researchers on new developments in various regions of the world. He devotes many pages to the debacle along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where Pakistan harbors extremists conducting the insurgency in Afghanistan. Both the documents selected by Lovelace and his insightful commentary describe how the U.S., under advice from Special Envoy Dick Holbrooke, has changed its approach to the problem by treating Afghanistan and Pakistan as one party instead of two. Volume 103 ("Global Issues") also examines the complex issue of China's possible assistance to terrorists overseas. For example, some weapons used against coalition forces in Afghanistan originate from China, despite China's promise to help the U.S. in its war against terror. Lovelace and the documents he presents also assess India's measured, thoughtful reaction to allegations that Pakistan facilitated the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The volume also alerts readers to disturbing developments in South America, where such groups as FARC in Colombia and The Shining Path in Peru have persisted in their profit-seeking campaigns of violence, despite those countries' general success in diminishing their power.