When Matthew C. Waxman joined the Columbia Law School faculty in 2007, the United States was still deeply entangled in the conflict in Iraq following the 9/11 attacks, and counter-terrorism was at the forefront of student concerns. . Today, cybersecurity and technology are top priorities for students, and China has replaced Iraq as the main national security concern.
Waxman notes that the field of national security law can change rapidly, but it’s important to balance national security with individual rights and manage crises while maintaining checks and balances. It revolves around some persistent challenges, such as giving the president enough powers to manage.
Chaired by Liviu Librescu Law Professor Waxman, the National Security Law program provides students with theoretical and practical knowledge to address these challenges. The program supports Columbia law students interested in careers in national security through courses, simulations, guest her speakers, and research opportunities.
The goal of the national security law program is to “make students think about the real-world threats and pressures of national security law and policymaking,” Waxman says. National security is an area where lawyers are “tackling very demanding demands, often with significant risks in either direction.”
And it is important for law students considering service to government that “National security law, even at the very young level, has a vital role to play and is deeply committed to its mission. This is an area where we can work with,” he says.
That was Waxman’s own experience. He was the newly hired Special Assistant to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice for two years after graduating from law school when the terrorists struck on September 11, 2001. Waxman sat with Rice in her office, watching television coverage of the first plane to crash into her World Trade Center. He took her to her room in the White House Situation, then to the bunker, where she met with Rice, Dick, her Vice President Cheney, and President George W. Bush on the phone with a commercial jet still in the air. We discussed whether to order the Air Force to shoot it down.
In Colombian law, he has held senior positions for many years with the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, and the State Department. In addition to chairing the National Security Law program, he teaches courses on cybersecurity, constitutional war powers, and intelligence and surveillance law. Other Law School faculty such as Philip C. Bobbitt, Sarah Cleveland and David Pozen also bring deep experience to national security roles in the federal government. Fellows in the National Security Law Program include former Deputy National Security Advisor and current Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes; former State Department Counsel and Diplomat Scott R. Anderson; Includes gloss. .
“Columbia Law has the best department in the field that combines theory and practice,” says Waxman. “No other law school has a deeper bench of full-time faculty members who are not only outstanding academics in the field, but who have spent time as part of government and national security policy processes. That’s me.” It is one of the distinguishing characteristics of our faculty and influences how we teach, the scholarships we produce, the professional development we offer our students, and the types of visitors we bring into our classrooms. give.”
Recent guest speakers include Brig. General Shane Reeves, legal director and former director of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Former CIA General Counsel Courtney Simmons Elwood.
“I bring guest practitioners to campus and spend time in meetings with students to get a feel for the details of the issue, not just the abstract, but the ethical dilemmas that arise and the intense pressures of lawyers. We talk about what the practice is like in this area, and policymakers come down,” Waxman says. “Because it’s those dilemmas and pressures that make the field important and exciting.”
For example, in a recent lecture to students and faculty, Reeves told Iraqi field commanders that immediately after a soldier was killed by a roadside bomb, a commander could legally order a nearby full car to attack. I remember advising you that you can’t. As a matter of fact people were not in favor of a lethal response. “You have to be prepared to get yelled at,” Reeves told his students. “For the lawyer’s duty to advise the Order is not only to the Order, but also to the Army and the State.”
Waxman says national security laws often require lawyers to fill different roles at the same time. For example, we advocate for our clients, represent our national interests, defend our values and adherence to the law, and explain the risks associated with different approaches to issues. “There are often a lot of risks involved in whichever direction a client goes,” he says.
The National Security Law Program conducts scholarship projects, including a recent partnership between the law school’s Japanese Law Research Center and the National Defense Academy. Strengthening the U.S.-Japan Alliance: A Pathway Bridging Law and Policy. With the support of the program, students pursuing National Security Scholarships will become legal historians and researchers outside of law school, including the university’s political science and history departments, international and public affairs departments, and Columbia as a research institute for data. resources are available. scientific laboratory.
The program also continues to work with the United States Military Academy at West Point, where Waxman helped found the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare. In addition, Waxman founded his JAG Scholars program, which provides military attorneys with Columbia Law in his LL.M. program. The JAG initiative gives members of the Attorney General’s College the opportunity to study at a prestigious LL.M. According to Waxman, the program gives Columbia law students the opportunity to study national security alongside those responsible for its implementation.
“JAG Scholars bring a lot directly into our classrooms and discussions,” says Waxman. “They obviously bring a wealth of professional experience. But they often bring different perspectives. It’s another to have that conversation face-to-face with a military officer returning from what you were doing on the ground, and that’s the intersection of theory and practice that I’m trying to create here in Colombia. ”
