Seeing reason or seeing costs? The United States, counterterrorism, and the human rights of foreigners

It is well known that in the wake of 9/11, the United States committed various extraterritorial human rights violations, that is, human rights violations against foreigners outside of its territory. What is less known is that the United States has gradually introduced safeguards that are, at least on paper, meant to prevent its counter-terrorism policies from causing harm to foreigners abroad or, at least, to mitigate such harm. Based on three case studies on the development of safeguards related to torture, targeted killing, and mass surveillance, we show that two mechanisms, coercion and strategic learning, deployed either on their own or in combination, can account for the development of such safeguards. By contrast, we found no evidence of a third mechanism, moral persuasion, having any direct effect. In other words, US policymakers opt to introduce such safeguards either when they face pressure from other states, courts, or civil society that makes immediate action necessary or when they anticipate that not introducing them will, at a later date, result in prohibitively high costs. We did not find evidence of US policymakers establishing safeguards because they deemed them morally appropriate. From this we conclude that, although the emerging norm that states have extraterritorial (and not just domestic) human rights obligations may not have been internalized by key US policymakers, it nevertheless has a regulative effect on them insofar as the fact that relevant others believe in the norm restricts their leeway and influences their cost–benefit calculations.

Intracellular delivery of protein drugs with an autonomously lysing bacterial system reduces tumor growth and metastases

Critical cancer pathways often cannot be targeted because of limited efficiency crossing cell membranes. Here we report the development of a Salmonella-based intracellular delivery system to address this challenge. We engineer genetic circuits that (1) activate the regulator flhDC to drive invasion and (2) induce lysis to release proteins into tumor cells. Released protein drugs diffuse from Salmonella containing vacuoles into the cellular cytoplasm where they interact with their therapeutic targets. Control of invasion with flhDC increases delivery over 500 times. The autonomous triggering of lysis after invasion makes the platform self-limiting and prevents drug release in healthy organs. Bacterial delivery of constitutively active caspase-3 blocks the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma and lung metastases, and increases survival in mice. This success in targeted killing of cancer cells provides critical evidence that this approach will be applicable to a wide range of protein drugs for the treatment of solid tumors.

The Invisible Frames Affecting Wartime Investigations

What are the invisible frames affecting fact-finding processes during armed conflicts? In this chapter I examine normative, cognitive, and legal frames shaping the outcomes of wartime investigations. First, I examine the reliance on the fog of war metaphor to justify practices of unknowing. Secondly, I analyse the role of legal ontology and epistemology in shaping the narrative of military actions. Thirdly, I survey cognitive and motivational biases influencing the collection and construction of facts during armed conflicts. Based on this interdisciplinary framework, I analyse data from the Israeli investigation of the targeted killing of Hamas Leader Salah Shehadeh. The analysis suggests that the combination of future-focused legal epistemology, cognitive and motivational biases, and the fog of war metaphor, generates law-fulfilling prophecies: a decision-making dynamic producing normative evaluations that are consistent with the legal requirements. The outcome is legitimization of otherwise unlawful actions, and perpetuation of faulty processes and human insecurity.

Qassem Soleimani, Targeted Killing of State Actors, and Executive Order 12,333

The targeted killing of the Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani in an American drone strike in January 2020 marked a novel development in the operation of the United States' drone programme; targeting a member of a state's armed forces as opposed to a member of a non-state armed group. Soleimani's killing offers an opportunity to re-examine the scope of Executive Order 12,333, which prohibits employees of the United States Government from committing assassinations. This article applies Executive Order 12,333's "assassination ban" to the Soleimani strike. The assassination ban's scope varies depending on whether it is applied in a wartime or peacetime context. This article concludes from the surrounding factual and legal context that the strike should be analysed according to the peacetime definition of assassination, which necessitates an analysis of the strike's compliance with the jus ad bellum, the legal framework applicable to uses of interstate force. It finds that the strike's non-compliance with the jus ad bellum, in addition to its likely political motive create a strong argument that the strike would constitute a prohibited assassination under the terms of the Executive Order, but the legal framework surrounding the Executive Order limits its direct enforceability with respect to presidentially authorised uses of force. It ultimately concludes that, despite the assassination ban's lack of direct enforceability, it nevertheless creates a strong normative counterbalance against an increasing tendency toward expansive uses of extraterritorial force.

Counter-Terrorism and Its Ethical Hazards

Chapter 7 discusses ethical problems faced by contemporary counter-terrorism measures. The discussion is primarily focused on reactions of states to sub-state terrorism broadly understood. There is an initial discussion of whether, and in what circumstances, terrorists should be treated as combatants or criminals and the bearing of this upon military and non-military forms of counter-terrorism. Problems with military responses connected with the inflammatory slogan “the war on terror,” including “targeted killing,” are also discussed. Thereafter, the chapter deals mostly with non-military responses and their moral and political hazards. These are examined under the three categories of: (1) legal and regulatory measures; (2) diplomatic measures; and (3) measures to remove the grievance. Under (1), difficulties connected with legal definitions of terrorism, and their tendency to promote abuses of civil rights, are explored; under (2) and (3) the path of political diplomacy is supported, but obstacles to its success in practice are discussed.

Mistrust and Imbalance: The Collapse of Intercommunal Relations and the Rise of Armed Community Mobilization on the Niger-Mali Border

The border area of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso is a site of endemic violence. The area is punctuated by anti-state attacks, the targeted killing of traditional chiefs, and attacks on markets and other socioeconomic convening locales that otherwise serve as central mechanisms for the preservation of normalized intercommunal interactions. In addition, foreign military interventions and asymmetric insurgent warfare pit multiple state and non-state actors equipped with heavy weaponry against one another, adding another level of insecurity and threat to local communities. Community-based armed groups (CBAGs) of Fulani and Tuareg ethnicity have aligned themselves with outside actors carrying out operations in the region out of choice, coercion, or in some cases both. Building on other research reports in RESOLVE’s Community-Based Armed Groups Series, this report explores local perceptions regarding the nature and impact of the violence in southwestern Niger. The report provides a summary of understanding of ongoing conflict dynamics from the most impacted communities and an insight on the knowledge and attitudes around actors participating in the violence. It hopes to inform efforts to bring an end to the violence and increase understanding of participating actors.