HONR 278D: National Security Dilemmas
Meeting Times and Location:
-
Mondays (beginning September 8) from 7:00 PM to 9:45 PM in ANA 120.
Course Summary
The police detain a man thought to be plotting a terrorist attack the next day in a U.S. city. The
attack would likely kill thousands, and injure many more. The police do not believe that the
man is acting alone, and do not believe that his arrest will disrupt the plot. The police also do
not believe that the man will provide useful information without being subject to extreme
measures; the police want to torture him. [Assume for the present purposes that they are
correct in their assessment that the only way to gain the information necessary to thwart the
attack is to torture the man.]
Question: Should the police be permitted to torture? If so, what should be the general rules
that govern the torture; who should decide whether he should be tortured?; what rights should
the man have to challenge the decision to subject him to torture?; in this scenario, is torture
the only way for the U.S. to beat the terrorists, or have we already lost as a free and open
country if we proceed down this path?
______________________________________________________
These and other questions reflect the types of issues and dilemmas faced by our national
security officials. And, following the events of September 11, 2001, these questions again are
at the forefront of our national discourse.
This course will sample some key questions raised during the efforts of our national security
apparatus to protect the nation. These questions reflect the enduring tension between the
powers of the government to protect the nation and its citizens with the limits on our
government imposed by the Constitution and by the moral, religious, and social norms that
define our country.
This course will focus on the basic arguments and considerations that form these debates, and
will provide an introduction to the fundamental principles that govern our efforts to protect the
nation while preserving our values. Special focus will be given to the delicate balance of these
principles in certain difficult national security dilemmas.
Note on Course Topics and Assigned Materials: Course topics and assigned materials are
subject to change. Over the past several months we have seen extraordinary developments
in matters relevant to this course. Though we should endeavor to cover all of the assigned
topics – as did last year in the wake of leaks by Edward Snowden – I will adjust our focus as
necessary to incorporate discussion of unfolding world events.
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Course Materials:
1. Joseph Margulies, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power, Simon & Schuster
(July 3, 2007) - students must purchase
2. James Olsen, Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying (Potomac Books Inc.) (December
30, 2007) – students must purchase
-Remainder of course materials will be posted to course page.
Grade Determinations:
·
Class Participation – 40%
·
Class participation includes attendance, preparation for class discussions by reading
assigned materials, active participation in class discussions, contribution of ideas
(informed by assigned reading, and individual perspectives), and special
presentations (details to follow)).
·
Written Assignments (preparation of written assignments, quality of written assignment,
and presentation of assignment to class on due date) – 60%
- Rough guidelines for writing an editorial style assignment word counts, formatting,
and style: roughly 500-1000 words; advocates a position; does so with clear arguments for why
the position makes sense and why other positions or alternatives make less sense;
demonstrates that you have read the assigned readings. A good sample from the assigned
readings is Thomas Friedman, Just Shut it Down, The New York Times, May 27, 2005.
For a sample of an A+ paper, I have posted a sample note on Free Speech from a
student from last semester.
·
TOTAL 100%
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Course Schedule and Assignments
Class
Topic
Summary
Reading / Assignment
TOPIC 1: Securing the Homeland and Preserving Civil Liberties
Class 1
Approaches to
National Security
Dilemmas
How best can we
evaluate national
security dilemmas?
None
Class 2
Profiling
Targeting individuals in
airports and elsewhere
based on their race,
ethnicity, etc.
Paul Butler, Walking While Black: Encounters with the Police on My
Street, Legal Times, Nov. 10, 1997
Sam Harris, In Defense of Profiling, SamHarris.org, April 28, 2012
Concerned Fan, Dear Sam
Michelle Malkin, Racial Profiling: A Matter of Survival, USA Today, Aug.
16, 2004
Asra Nomani, Let’s Profile Muslims, The Daily Beast, Nov. 28, 2010
Racial Profiling, ACLU, ACLU.org
Assignment: Should the government use racial profiling (among other
techniques) to protect and defend the country from terrorist attacks?
Class 3
Free Speech,
Free Press,
Secrecy,
Transparency
Leaks of Classified
Information; Freedom
of the Press; “Prior
Restraint”
- New York Times v. United States, 403 US 713 (1971).
- President John F. Kennedy, Address Before the American Newspaper
Publishers Association (The President and the Press) April 27, 1961.
- Sagar, Who Decides What’s Secret: Obama, or Snowden?, CNN, June
14, 2013
- Marc Thiessen, The Danger of What Edward Snowden Has Not
Revealed, The Washington Post, July 9, 2013
- Daniel Ellsberg, Snowden made the right call when he fled the U.S.,
The Washington Post, July 7, 2013
- Representative Mike Rogers, Editorial, USA Today, July 25, 2013
Assignment: Was Edward Snowden justified in leaking classified
information? What is the standard by which you judge whether his
actions were justified?
Regardless of the position you take, please make sure focus on the
appropriate balance – as you see it – between an informed public and
the necessity for government to conduct certain activities in secret.
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Class
Topic
Summary
Reading / Assignment
Class 4
Right to privacy
Government efforts to
protect citizens from
terrorist attacks (and
the fear of terrorist
attacks); effectiveness
of these efforts;
reduction in personal
privacy.
Remarks of Robert Litt, General Counsel of the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence, Brookings Institution, July 19, 2013
Remarks of Senator Ron Wyden, Center for American Progress, July 23,
2013
Michael Hayden, Snowden – Facts, Fictions and Fears, CNN, July 24,
2013
Thomas Friedman, Blowing A Whistle, The New York Times, June 11,
2013.
Louis Nayman, In Defense of PRISM, In These Times, July 2, 2013
Jennifer Granick and Christopher Sprigman, The Criminal NSA, The
New York Times, June 27, 2013
Assignment: Do you support the government’s collection of
telephone metadata as discussed in the assigned readings? If you
were the President, would you continue the program?
For purposes of your editorial, you must accept the view of national
security officials that the efforts are helpful in combating terrorism.
If you oppose the program, your opposition must be notwithstanding
the value of the surveillance. In other words, it will be insufficient
simply to state your view that the program is not helpful in combating
terrorism.
If you support the program, your editorial must explain the limitations
you believe should exist on government surveillance.
Class 5
Cyber
Offensive Cyber;
Defensive Cyber; Cyber
Espionage;
Public/Private
Partnerships
President Barack Obama, Taking the Cyberattack Threat Seriously (July
19, 2012)
Remainder TBD
TOPIC 2: War and the Warfighter
Class 6
Humanitarian
Intervention
Do we have duty to
intervene?
Never Again Should People Starve in a World of Plenty, 121 Harv. L.
Rev. 1886 (2008).
Michael Walzer, Arguing About War (Chapter: The Politics of Rescue),
Yale University Press, Jan 12, 2006.
The Impact of Casualty Aversion, thepicaproject.org
Assignment: How should the US Government decide whether to
intervene militarily, for humanitarian reasons? In other words, what
are the relevant standards/considerations that policy-makers should
consider when deciding whether to intervene.
Your editorial should address both the moral obligation to intervene (if
you believe that there is one), and the duty to protect our troops for
unnecessary risk.
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Class
Topic
Summary
Reading / Assignment
Class 7
Targeted Killing
Duty of Proportionality;
Drones
The Myth of Proportionality, mitchellbard.com
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Overwhelming Force is the Only Way to Fight
Terrorists, The Huffington Post, Aug. 14, 2012.
Letter from AG Eric Holder to Sen. Patrick Leahy, May 22, 2013
Nasser al-Awlaki, The Drone that Killed My Grandson, The New York
Times, July 17, 2013
President Truman, Selected Presidential Papers re Decision to Drop
the Atom Bomb.
Assignment: Write an editorial that addresses the following
questions:
1. Should the US government use armed drones to kill suspected
terrorists?
2. Should the citizenship of the individual matter?
3. What are the circumstances in which use of armed drones would
be justified?
4. What limits should be in place to protect against abuse?
TOPIC 3: The Global War on Terrorism
Class 8
Enhanced
Interrogation (in
theory)
Torture by an open
democracy; Protection
of human life or respect
for humanity?
Joseph Margulies, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power
(Intro through Chapter 2), Simon & Schuster (July 3, 2007).
Christopher Hitchens, Believe Me, its Torture, Vanity Fair (Aug. 2008).
Fritz Allhoff, Terrorism and Torture, International Journal of Applied
Philosophy, (2003).
Michael Skerker, Interrogation Ethics in the Context of Intelligence
Collection (Ethics of Spying by Jan Goldman), Scarecrow Press
(December 14, 2005).
No written assignment
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Class
Topic
Class 9
Enhanced
Interrogation (in
practice)
Summary
Reading / Assignment
Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown: A Memoir (Excerpts), Sentinel
Trade (May 19, 2012).
Alan Dershowitz, The Case for Torture Warrants (2002).
Joseph Margulies, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power
(Ch. 5, Pts. I & II; Ch. 6, Pts. I, II, and IV), Simon & Schuster (July 3,
2007).
Memorandum for John Rizzo, Acting General Counsel of the Central
Intelligence Agency, Aug. 1, 20002, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S.
Department of Justice
Letter from Jack Goldsmith, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department
of Justice, to Scott Muller, Central Intelligence Agency, May 27, 2004
Letter from Daniel Levin, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of
Justice, to John Rizzo, Central Intelligence Agency, Sept. 6, 2004
Assignment: When, if ever, should the government use enhanced
interrogation techniques? What types of checks/limits should exist to
protect against abuse? Are there limits to the types of techniques that
can be used? Should it depend on the gravity of the particular facts
and circumstances?
[This effectively is a double assignment, meaning that (1) it counts as
two assignments, (2) accordingly it should be “enhanced” (excuse the
pun), and (3) it should demonstrate that you have read and engaged
with the assigned readings for both classes 8 and 9]
Class
10
Military
Obedience and
“Superior
Orders”
My Lai Massacre; Abu
Ghraib
Seymour M. Hersh, Torture at Abu Ghraib, The New Yorker (May 10,
2004)
Partly Cloudy, Chapter 4 and pgs. 76-77
Assignment: How can the US government adequately ensure
obedience to military orders, while at the same time enabling
sufficient discretion to minimize the risk of atrocities carried out as a
result of blind obedience?
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Class
Topic
Summary
Reading / Assignment
Class
11
Detention
Japanese internment;
detention in the global
war on terrorism
Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944) (Selected Excerpts)
Abu Ali v. Ashcroft, 350 F. Supp. 2d 28 (D.D.C. 2004)(Excerpts)
John Yoo, The KSM Trial Will be an Intelligence Bonanza for al Qaeda,
The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 15, 2009.
Michael Isakoff, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose': In 9/11 Case, KSM Won't
Walk Free Even If Found Not Guilty, Newsweek, Nov. 18, 2009.
Assignment: Should the President have the power to detain
individuals when he deems doing so necessary for national security?
What should the limits and checks be on that power? Please address
the points made by John Yoo, and by the Court in Korematsu.
Class
12
Guantanamo
The value of
Guantanamo; valuable
solution or
unacceptable national
symbol?
Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown: A Memoir (Excerpts), Sentinel
Trade (May 19, 2012).
Issues for Debate in American Public Policy, Chapter 15: Closing
Guantanamo
Morris David, The Guantanamo I Know, The New York Times, June 26,
2007
Obama and Guantanamo, The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 22, 2009
Beyond Guantanamo, Chicago Tribune, Jan. 22, 2009
Robert Worth, Freed by the U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief, The
New York Times, Jan. 22, 2009
Thomas Friedman, Just Shut it Down, The New York Times, May 27,
2005
Joseph Margulies, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power
(Pgs. 140-144; Pgs. 205-209), Simon & Schuster (July 3, 2007).
Assignment: Should the President shut down Guantanamo? If yes,
please explain why, and explain what you propose we do with the
remaining inmates. If no, please explain why you believe that the
prisoners should not be entitled to their day in US federal court.
Regardless of the position you take, please address how your proposal
adequately balances national security against the constitutional rights
of the incarcerated individuals (e.g., to a trial, to due process, etc.).
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Class
Topic
Summary
Reading / Assignment
TOPIC 4: Moral Considerations in National Security Matters
Classes
13 &
14
Moral
Philosophy and
the Justification
for Spying
Case studies; Do
the Ends Justify
the Means?
Partly Cloudy (Chapter 7)
Fair Play, The Moral Dilemmas of Spying, Olsen, James (pages 1-29)
Assignment: Please read the assigned case study, and prepare an inclass presentation (roughly 10 minutes) that accomplishes the
following:

Introduces and explains the case study.

Presents the varying perspectives and the bases for those
perspectives.

Provides your personal perspective, including the reasons why
your perspective strikes the appropriate balances between
morality and national security need.
Be prepared to field and respond to follow up questions from the
class.
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