Lawmakers are at odds over legislation that allows the U.S. government to surveil noncitizens overseas without a warrant. Set to expire last December, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) specifically authorizes the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect communications of foreigners who are located outside the U.S. and who have been deemed intelligence targets. Currently, the NSA does not have to issue warrants to collect the information from American companies such as AT&T when surveiling noncitizens. Critics of the legislation argue that it threatens the civil liberties of Americans given that some of the communications collected could…

More than 20 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the onset of the war on terror, policymakers are still debating the need to house suspected terrorists at a U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Opened in January 2002 under then-President George W. Bush, the infamous detention center has been the source of much conflict. Proponents have argued that Guantanamo was and still is needed to protect Americans’ safety, while detractors question the facility’s practice of detaining individuals without judicial oversight and the legacy of controversial interrogation techniques that have violated the Geneva Conventions. Some Guantanamo detainees who have…

The House voted in June to repeal the 2002 Iraq War authorization. The measure repealing the authorization to use military force (AUMF) passed by a vote of 268-161 and received overwhelming support from Democrats and 49 Republicans. The 2002 AUMF allowed the George W. Bush administration to invade Iraq over suspicions that the country was developing weapons of mass destruction. The invasion toppled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s government but also led to what some have called a “forever war,” with American troops still in the country nearly two decades later. The 2002 AUMF came a year after Congress passed…

In November 2020, the Trump administration announced that it would reduce U.S. military troops in Iraq and Afghanistan during the president’s final days in office. Christopher Miller, then-acting secretary of defense, said that U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan would drop from 4,500 to 2,500 and troop levels in Iraq would reduce from 3,000 to 2,500 by Jan. 15, 2021. The move received a mixed response. Some lawmakers praised the plan as a key step in the larger push to unwind the U.S. military’s nearly 20-year involvement in the two countries, while others said it could be a security risk given…

Congress demonstrated its disapproval of the Trump administration’s recent military action against Iran when it approved a bipartisan resolution (S.J. Res. 68) limiting the president’s war powers against that country. Weeks after the Trump administration ordered an airstrike in January that killed Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general, the Senate passed S.J. Res. 68 in a 55-45 vote, with eight Republicans joining all Senate Democrats in approving the measure. In March the House passed the measure by a vote of 227-186, with several Republicans joining Democrats in support of the resolution. President Trump, however, is likely to veto it. “With…

On August 9, Vice President Pence laid out an ambitious plan to establish a “Space Force” by 2020 as the sixth branch of the U.S. military. The new branch would be the first since the Air Force was formed shortly after World War II. Pence stated: “The space environment has fundamentally changed in the last generation. What was once peaceful and uncontested is now crowded and adversarial. Today, other nations are seeking to disrupt our space-based systems and challenge American supremacy in space as never before.” Pence cited he pursuit of new space weapons by Russia, China, North Korea, and…

In 1981, the Supreme Court ruled that women did not have to register for the draft because they did not participate in the front lines of combat. The debate resumed, however, when Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced in December 2015 that the Pentagon was opening all combat roles to women. In late April 2016, the House Armed Services Committee, by a vote of 32 to 30, approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to require women to register for the draft when they turn 18. Representative Duncan Hunter (CA-R), an opponent of the change, offered the amendment…

Saying that America’s armed forces must draw from “the broadest possible pool of talent,” Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, on December 3, 2015, ordered the U.S. military to open all combat jobs to women, with “no exceptions.” Prior to this announcement, women were not precluded by law from serving in any military unit or specialty; however, a 1994 Department of Defense policy barred them from serving in combat. In January 2013, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta directed each branch of the armed services to assess the impact of opening combat positions to women and to develop plans for integrating them…

A new Pentagon report based on an independent survey found that the prevalence of sexual assault in the military has dropped. The survey showed that 20,300 sexual assaults occurred within the military’s ranks in 2014, down from an all-time high of 26,000 in 2012 but still higher than the 19,000 reported in 2010. The 2014 figure represents 4.9 percent of women and 1 percent of men in the active duty forces. The 2014 RAND Military Workplace Study also determined that reports of sexual assault are up 11 percent over the previous year and 70 percent over 2012, with one in…

Since the release of a Pentagon study showing that sexual assault incidents the U.S. military have increased significantly in recent years, Congress has been under pressure to change the way in which such cases are investigated and prosecuted. The study estimated that there were 26,000 such instances within the military last year, but that just over 10 percent were actually reported. President Barack Obama called the findings an “outrage” that threatened to undercut the military’s integrity. On December 19, right before adjourning for the year, the Senate cleared for the President’s signature a Defense Department Authorization bill that contains major…