Rational Security: The 'You Hear That, Mr. Anderson? That Is the Sound of Inevitability. Goodbye, Mr. Anderson' Edition
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
This week, Scott took a well-deserved vacation, so Alan and Quinta were joined by Lawfare managing editor Tyler McBrien to discuss:
- “But I thought 42 was the answer to life, the universe, and everything.” This week the Biden administration will cease Title 42, the policy linked to the Covid public health emergency under which asylum seekers could be turned back at the border. In its place, the administration is implementing a new rule that substantially limits asylum, limitations that, before the Trump administration implemented Title 42, would have been unthinkable. What should we make of the Biden administration’s embrace of immigration restrictions?
- “Every time a tragedy, increasingly also a farce.” Over the weekend, a gunman opened fire at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, killing at least 8 people and injuring at least 7 before being killed by police. Tragically, this wasn’t even the deadliest mass shooting on record this year. How did mass shootings become America’s pastime, and what can be done to stop them?
- “BuzzFeed? More Like Buzz Kill.” Late last month, BuzzFeed News announced that it was shutting down. The news site always courted controversy, never more so than when, in 2017, it published the unverified and infamous “Steele Dossier” alleging that Russia had compromising information on newly elected president Donald Trump. But the site had notable successes as well, earning a George Polk Award and a Pulitzer Prize. What does BuzzFeed News’s end signal about the future of journalism?
For object lessons, Quinta highlighted Caitlin Dickerson’s Pulitzer-winning coverage of family separation in The Atlantic, Tyler recommended the new global publication The Dial, and Alan raved about his new favorite dystopian sci-fi show, Silo.
Jen Patja is the editor and producer of The Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
Quinta Jurecic is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare. She previously served as Lawfare's managing editor and as an editorial writer for the Washington Post.
Scott R. Anderson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow in the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State and as the legal advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
Tyler McBrien is the managing editor of Lawfare. He previously worked as an editor with the Council on Foreign Relations and a Princeton in Africa Fellow with Equal Education in South Africa, and holds an MA in international relations from the University of Chicago.
