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Benjamin Wittes

    Benjamin Wittes est un chercheur principal en études de gouvernance à la Brookings Institution. Il est cofondateur et co-auteur du influent blog Lawfare, dédié à la discussion non idéologique des choix difficiles en matière de sécurité nationale. Wittes s'est spécialisé dans les affaires juridiques en tant que chroniqueur pour le Washington Post. Ses écrits sont également parus dans un large éventail de revues et de magazines.

    Law and the Long War
    • Law and the Long War

      The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror

      • 305pages
      • 11 heures de lecture

      Benjamin Wittes presents a nonpartisan critique of a critical aspect of America’s war on terror—the legal battles involving the Bush administration, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Six years post-September 11, America is faltering not against Al Qaeda but due to its inability to establish laws that safeguard its military, executive branch, and citizens in an unprecedented conflict. As President Bush's tenure wanes, Wittes delivers a robust analysis of the troubling legal legacy left by the administration, Congress, and the judiciary. He narrates how the nation reached its current deadlock in the discourse surrounding liberty, human rights, and counterterrorism, proposing a roadmap for future leaders. Moving beyond the polarized debate on whether the executive or judiciary should lead counterterrorism policy, Wittes argues that the core issue lies in the Bush administration’s failure to seek new laws to authorize necessary presidential actions. He contends that the administration's significant shortcoming was not its aggressiveness but its reluctance to involve other branches of government. Through new empirical research on Guantánamo Bay detainees, he suggests that many actions taken were more defensible than critics claimed and deserved congressional backing. By resisting collaboration with Congress and the judiciary, the executive branch inadvertently hindered shared political accountability for actions challenging traditio

      Law and the Long War2008