Research Agenda
My research crosses the fields of international relations theory, security studies, foreign policy, international law, and human rights. It speaks to the tension between security and human rights, how and why organizations change, how foreign policies are formulated, and when law can make a difference.
Dissertation
My dissertation, “Speaking Law to War: International Law, Legal Advisers, and Bureaucratic Contestation in U.S. Defense Policy,” represents the first systematic examination of how the institutionalization of international law into the U.S. national security apparatus has affected its decision making process and the conduct of war. My research goes beyond macro explanations—self-interests or acculturation—for compliance. Instead, it highlights the mechanisms that show precisely how international law makes a difference in states’ behavior. I introduce the “legalized bureaucratic politics” theory, which emphasizes that the incorporation of international law into the structure and culture of the various national security bureaucracies has changed the rules of the decision making and policy implementation game. In addition, the theory highlights new empowered agents—civilian and military legal advisers—that serve as internal norm entrepreneurs advocating a more law-conscious policy.
For my dissertation I carried out archival research in four Presidential libraries and at the National Archives, and conducted more than 60 in-depth interviews with current and former U.S. legal advisers and policymakers, including: former National Security Advisor, General James L. Jones; former CIA and NSA Director, General Michael V. Hayden; former Acting Secretary of Defense and State Department Legal Adviser, William Howard Taft IV; former Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage; former Undersecretary for Defense for Policy, Michèle Flournoy; former NSC Counterterrorism 'Czar,' Richard A. Clarke; former White House General Counsel, John W. Dean; former DOD General Counsel Judith A. Miller; former NSC Legal Adviser Mary DeRosa; former NSC and State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger III; former NSC Legal Adviser, Judge James E. Baker; former Judge Advocate General for the US Army, General Dana K. Chipman; former General Counsel of the Navy, Alberto J. Mora; former Acting CIA General Counsel, John Rizzo; former General Counsel for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard C. Gross; and current General Counsel for the ODNI, Robert S. Litt.
Other Projects
Based on the fieldwork I have conducted for my dissertation, I am developing two additional research projects. The first is to expand the cases in my dissertation to include the use of targeted killings by the U.S. during the Vietnam War and in the post-9/11 era. This will allow me to compare two different regime types: the prohibitive anti-torture regime with the regulative targeted killings regime, addressing constructivist and neo-liberal institutionalist concerns of norm development and design. The second focuses on how international law affects and is affected by the ubiquitous use of covert operations worldwide.
Finally, Jonathan Graubart and I plan to expand on our article that reviews the remarkable success of the Palestine Liberation Organization in alliance with the Non-Aligned Movement in appropriating the UN Security Council's (UNSC) normative power to transform the global understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In our article, we featured the period from 1967 to 1980. For the book, we will expand our analysis to cover the entire period of UNSC involvement in the conflict, from 1947 to the present.
Dissertation
My dissertation, “Speaking Law to War: International Law, Legal Advisers, and Bureaucratic Contestation in U.S. Defense Policy,” represents the first systematic examination of how the institutionalization of international law into the U.S. national security apparatus has affected its decision making process and the conduct of war. My research goes beyond macro explanations—self-interests or acculturation—for compliance. Instead, it highlights the mechanisms that show precisely how international law makes a difference in states’ behavior. I introduce the “legalized bureaucratic politics” theory, which emphasizes that the incorporation of international law into the structure and culture of the various national security bureaucracies has changed the rules of the decision making and policy implementation game. In addition, the theory highlights new empowered agents—civilian and military legal advisers—that serve as internal norm entrepreneurs advocating a more law-conscious policy.
For my dissertation I carried out archival research in four Presidential libraries and at the National Archives, and conducted more than 60 in-depth interviews with current and former U.S. legal advisers and policymakers, including: former National Security Advisor, General James L. Jones; former CIA and NSA Director, General Michael V. Hayden; former Acting Secretary of Defense and State Department Legal Adviser, William Howard Taft IV; former Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage; former Undersecretary for Defense for Policy, Michèle Flournoy; former NSC Counterterrorism 'Czar,' Richard A. Clarke; former White House General Counsel, John W. Dean; former DOD General Counsel Judith A. Miller; former NSC Legal Adviser Mary DeRosa; former NSC and State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger III; former NSC Legal Adviser, Judge James E. Baker; former Judge Advocate General for the US Army, General Dana K. Chipman; former General Counsel of the Navy, Alberto J. Mora; former Acting CIA General Counsel, John Rizzo; former General Counsel for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard C. Gross; and current General Counsel for the ODNI, Robert S. Litt.
Other Projects
Based on the fieldwork I have conducted for my dissertation, I am developing two additional research projects. The first is to expand the cases in my dissertation to include the use of targeted killings by the U.S. during the Vietnam War and in the post-9/11 era. This will allow me to compare two different regime types: the prohibitive anti-torture regime with the regulative targeted killings regime, addressing constructivist and neo-liberal institutionalist concerns of norm development and design. The second focuses on how international law affects and is affected by the ubiquitous use of covert operations worldwide.
Finally, Jonathan Graubart and I plan to expand on our article that reviews the remarkable success of the Palestine Liberation Organization in alliance with the Non-Aligned Movement in appropriating the UN Security Council's (UNSC) normative power to transform the global understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In our article, we featured the period from 1967 to 1980. For the book, we will expand our analysis to cover the entire period of UNSC involvement in the conflict, from 1947 to the present.