Just Security

15/12/2025

Daily Developments: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions

See here for the full tracker: https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/

15/12/2025

Facing the challenge from China, U.S. technological leadership in the century ahead requires a focused and disciplined strategy coordinated with allies.

Read or listen to the article, Trump’s Chip Strategy Needs Recalibration, by Michael Schiffer on Just Security.
🔗 Link in bio.

About the Author:
Michael Schiffer worked as Assistant Administrator for Asia at USAID from 2022 until January 20, 2025. He previously served as senior advisor and counselor on the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, and as Legislative Director and national security advisor to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), among other posts.

15/12/2025

The 22 boat strikes have triggered an international obligation to investigate potential illegalities.

Michael Schmitt and Marko Milanovic discuss

- legal sources for the obligation to investigate
- criteria for carrying out independent investigation

The lethal strikes are unlawful under IHRL and, even on the administration’s own terms, trigger LOAC and DoD duties to investigate.

15/12/2025

In geo-economic competition, the Trump administration celebrates short-term deals, while executes a multi-decade strategy to dominate the .

Michael Schiffer writes it’s not too late to recalibrate:

Maintaining U.S. technological leadership over China requires a ruthlessly focused and disciplined strategy coordinated with allies.

15/12/2025

Today's news roundup:
-6 UN peacekeepers killed in strike on UN facility in Sudan
-ICE use air-travel passenger data in deportation effort
-National parks ordered to remove items promoting D.E.I. from gift shops
-HK convicts Jimmy Lai in national security case
👇

A curated guide to major news and developments over the weekend.

13/12/2025

Weekend Special - updated with 11 new Q&A (including on seizure of sanctioned vessels) and expanded answer on the law of proportionality and boat strikes on the shipwrecked.

Expert Q&A
By Tess Bridgeman, Michael Schmitt and Ryan Goodman

Expert Q&A on the U.S. lethal strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats on the high seas and more.

13/12/2025

Catch up on our recent analysis:

• U.S. strikes / Venezuela
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Israel-Hamas War
• Rwanda-DRC conflict
• Signalgate
• Anti-corruption series
• Emerging technologies
• Trump executive actions
• Counterterrorism
• United Nations
• Intelligence sharing

With thanks to our authors this week:

Adama Balde
Adam Keith
Barry Jonas
Ben Donaldson
Brian O'Neill
Claudette Segura
Gabor Rona
Hardin Lang
Joe Khawam
Justin Hendrix
Kateryna Busol
Lowell H. Schwartz
Luke Baumgartner
Mark J. Wood
Mark Nevitt
Mavic Cabrera-Balleza
Michael Schmitt
Rebecca Hamilton
Ryan Goodman
Samiksha Mukherjee
Sanmay Moitra
Schuyler Miller
Tess Bridgeman
Tim Schnabel
Tracey Begley

U.S. strikes / Venezuela • Russia-Ukraine War • Israel-Hamas War • Rwanda-DRC conflict • Signalgate • Anti-corruption series • Emerging technologies • Trump executive actions • Counterterrorism • United Nations • Intelligence sharing

12/12/2025

Trump’s Rwanda-DRC peace deal inherits six months of failed implementation, unmet security commitments, and a worsening humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo.

Read or listen to the article, Rwanda–DRC Peace Deal: Trump Owns It. Now What?, by Hardin Lang and Mark J. Wood on Just Security.
🔗 Link in bio.

About the Authors:
Hardin Lang is Vice President of Refugees International. He served in six UN peacekeeping and humanitarian field missions in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Central American, Iraq, Haiti and Mali.

Mark Wood is the program associate for Refugees International. He has extensive research and advocacy experience on peace and security efforts in Africa and the Middle East, focusing on the root causes of violence.

12/12/2025

The Security Council and General Assembly are starting the nominations process for the next .

Could it be a woman this time? Adama Balde, Ben Donaldson, Mavic Cabrera, and Claudette Segura outline new research on the prospects:

Analysis of statements by U.N. member states shows many interested in seeing a woman become the next secretary-general for the first time.

12/12/2025

President Trump has tied his name and political capital to one of ’s most intractable wars – between and the .

Hardin Lang and Mark Wood on the pitfalls and what it would take to make it work:

Trump’s Rwanda-DRC peace deal risks failure in implementation as continued fighting and the humanitarian crisis devastate eastern Congo.

12/12/2025

Can AI-generated outputs be subject to export controls?

Yes, write Joe Khawam and Tim Schnabel.

But the agencies responsible for enforcing these controls have yet to address this challenge:

The AI and national security conversation must go beyond semiconductors and model weights to include the outputs those technologies enable.