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Recently demobilized Ukrainian defender wearing dog shirt

Today on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher and I were unusually revolutionary. Instead of talking about policy, politics, and the state of the world, we discussed colonoscopies, barium enemas, projection logistics, and the cactus's new friend, the CIA snowman.

It’s been a busy weekend, ok? Sometimes you just want to shoot the shit with a friend, and this is a revolution in morning television, so that’s what we did. And tomorrow, I’m doing the show from an Amtrak. So there.

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The Situation: How Does Trump Stack Up Against Neville Chamberlain?

In today’s column, I defend Neville Chamberlain—who allowed Adolf Hitler to annex the Sudetenland and then take over the rest of Czechoslovakia—against comparisons with Trump following his and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting in the Oval Office on Feb. 28. I argue that the comparison is wholly unfair to Chamberlain, who acted in good faith and was motivated by peace, while Trump acts malevolently:

The game Trump and Vance are playing, by contrast, is more like holding the Munich peace conference after the Germans had already invaded the Soviet Union, after the evidence of Hitler’s rapacious territorial ambitions were already beyond controversy. It is as though, three years into World War II, the British prime minister had sought to make a separate peace with Hitler based on Germany’s getting to keep the lebensraum it had grabbed for itself—and based on total impunity for his crimes. And it is as though, in doing so, he had actively sought to humiliate the Czechoslovak and Polish leaders in public with German television cameras running and British media excluded. This was a decision, quite different from Munich, actively to side with evil in the middle of a shooting war.

Oh, and I appeal to a remarkable source of authority for my defense of Chamberlain. But you’ll have to read the column to find out who it is.

If I do say so myself, it’s a particularly good column.

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Today On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett

Israel’s Renewed Judicial Overhaul

Amichai Cohen and Yuval Shany detail recent attempts by the members of Israel’s right-wing government to move forward with controversial reforms to the country’s judicial system. Cohen and Shany explain that while the most recent proposal may appear more moderate than prior ones, the changes will still further politicize the selection of judges and cast doubt on the authority and legitimacy of the Supreme Court president:

We survey two recent developments illustrating that the fight over the configuration of Israel’s legal system has resumed. First, there is a new push by Levin (and Sa'ar) to alter the composition of Israel’s Judicial Selection Committee, moving from a system in which there exist strong professional safeguards against appointing under-qualified Supreme Court judges to a system of political appointments. Second, the recent showdown between Levin and the current Selection Committee over the appointment of Justice Yitzhak Amit as Supreme Court president has set the stage for a full-blown constitutional crisis.

The New American Imperialism: How Europe Can Deal With Trump’s Threat to Greenland

In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Sophia Besch and Jeremy Shapiro argue that European leaders must retire their strategy of appeasement in favor of a more aggressive response to President Donald Trump’s push to acquire Greenland. Besch and Shapiro explain that Europe must recognize that Trump’s imperialist motivations make cooperation on security insufficient to satisfy him, and that there are few, if any, officials who will temper Trump’s demands as they did in the first term:

Denmark and the European Union as a whole desperately need a new script for Trump 2.0. They should take a page from (supposed) Russian nuclear doctrine and escalate to de-escalate. Trump, after all, is a classic bully: quick to assert his power and threaten force, but quite afraid of strength and violence. The key to dealing with bullies is to stand up to them and respond with pressure of your own. Beneath the bully’s braggadocio, he is always more scared than he appears. Once they see your strength and determination, you can generally negotiate a deal.

Problems With a Criminal Law Response to Transnational Repression

Jeremy Daum argues against the creation of a new criminal offense to prosecute transnational repression, a term encompassing the wide variety of tactics states use to quell criticism and activism by communities overseas. Daum asserts that expanding criminal law will have unintended consequences, such as increasing scrutiny of minority communities and criminalizing free expression:

Allegations of foreign interference or transnational repression (TR) are inescapably linked to communities that are defined by national origin and ethnicity. Viewing them as a law enforcement issue creates a serious risk of unacceptable profiling and politically motivated prosecutions.

Creating a new offense would also criminalize conduct that is otherwise currently legal—including protected speech—when it can be attributed to a foreign power. As Liang’s case illustrates, there is a thin line between acting as an agent of a foreign government, subject to its direction and control, and as an activist politically aligned with that government.

Most importantly, while law enforcement is a necessary part of a response to TR, it is not adequate to deter foreign powers or protect the rights of targets by itself.

Challenges in Governing AI Agents

Noam Kolt discusses his recent study of autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents, which created the first public database that documents the technical, safety, and policy-relevant features of deployed AI agents. Kolt—based on the results of the study—recommends approaches for governing these agents, including mandating more systematic testing, managing communication and collaboration among agents, and integrating technical governance with existing legal frameworks:

Drawing on the features of internet architecture, researchers suggest that governance infrastructure for AI agents should perform three core functions: attributing specific actions to particular AI agents, shaping the interactions among different AI agents, and detecting and addressing harmful actions. In practice, these functions could involve verifying that AI agents act on behalf of a particular individual or organization, establishing protocols for communication and cooperation between AI agents, and enabling certain actions of AI agents to be reversed.

Podcasts

In a live conversation on Feb. 28, I spoke to Anna Bower, Roger Parloff, and Chris Mirasola about legal challenges to detention of immigrants at Guantanamo Bay, the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development and the foreign aid freeze, and the firing of probationary employees across the federal government.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is Wisdom, a Laysan albatross and the world’s oldest known wild bird. She’s at least 74 years old, and her newest chick was just born this year! Here she is grooming the baby:

Some more facts about Wisdom, from Smithsonian Magazine:

Biologists estimate Wisdom has laid between 50 and 60 eggs throughout her lifetime. And at least 30 of those produced hatchlings that made it to the fledgling stage, when they have left the nest and are starting to learn to fly…

Wisdom has likely outlived at least three mates, including her long-time partner Akeakamai. Albatrosses typically mate for life, but when Akeakamai stopped returning to Midway Atoll in recent years, Wisdom had to find a new suitor…

Biologists don’t know much about Wisdom’s new beau, as he was only banded in late November 2024. But the paired birds have been taking turns tending to their chick, since Laysan albatrosses share the responsibility of parenting.

When she’s not breeding and raising chicks, Wisdom spends her time soaring over the open ocean in search of squid, crustaceans and fish. Biologists estimate Wisdom has flown roughly 3.7 million miles in her lifetime—which is a greater distance than flying to the moon and back seven times.

In honor of today’s Beast, remember that you’re never too old for friends, family, and new experiences.