War Powers and the Latest U.S. Intervention in Yemen with Brian Finucane, Jack Goldsmith, and Matt Gluck
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2024
⏱️ 65 minutes
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Summary
U.S. military operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen have escalated rapidly in recent weeks, culminating in a number of major strikes aimed at degrading their ability to threaten Red Sea shipping traffic. But the war powers reports the Biden administration has provided to Congress are raising questions about how it is legally justifying this latest military campaign.
To discuss the burgeoning conflict in Yemen and what it might mean for war powers, Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sat down with Brian Finucane, Senior Adviser at the Crisis Group; Lawfare Co-founder and Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith; and Lawfare Research Fellow Matt Gluck. They talked about their recent pieces on the topic, what we know and don’t know about the administration’s legal theory, and what the law might mean for how the conflict evolves moving forward.
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Transcript
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| 0:27.0 | I think the clash on the 31st of December is pretty closely paralleled by some |
| 0:40.2 | incidents the US government has reported in the past, |
| 0:43.4 | particularly there a few incidents during the Tanker War |
| 0:45.7 | that the Reagan administration reported, |
| 0:47.3 | you know, citing the hostilities prong |
| 0:50.6 | pretty clearly because they were hostilities. |
| 0:52.8 | And so it raises a question why that incident at a minimum |
| 0:56.0 | wasn't reported and why the clock didn't start then. |
| 0:59.2 | I will just say that I have heard, based on my conversations in DC that the Biden administration may be leaning |
| 1:07.2 | into an argument at least in its explanations to Congress that incidents involving what might be turned unit self-defense |
| 1:16.7 | or on-the-spot actions authorized by, you know, Sintom or, you know, subordinate commanders don't constitute hostilities for |
| 1:24.6 | war powers purposes such a theory might also explain their reporting |
| 1:28.3 | practices with respect to the airstrikes in Yemen itself. |
| 1:34.0 | I'm Scott I Andersonerson. This is the Lawfare Podcast for January 30th, 2024. |
| 1:38.0 | U.S. military operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen have escalated rapidly |
| 1:42.0 | in recent weeks, culminating in a number of major strikes aimed at |
| 1:44.9 | degrading their ability to threaten Red Sea shipping traffic. But the War Powers reports the |
| 1:49.5 | Biden administration has provided to Congress are raising questions about how it is legally justifying |
... |
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