Dead, Detained or Stateless

Two decades after the attacks of September 11th, the threat of terrorism remains.  In her latest book, Dead, Detained or Stateless: Human Rights Law and Counterterrorism Strategies, CSIS Senior Associate Diane Webber examines certain judicial trends since 9/11 in litigation arising out of public policies relating to preventive detention, targeted killing and measures that deal with returning foreign fighters, as well as public attitudes to these strategies. In the first two sections of her book, Dr. Webber examines the policies of the U.S., UK, and Israel related to preventative detention and targeted killings and considers the degree to which human rights concerns have been integrated into these conversations.  Her book then turns to those who are stateless, specifically foreign fighters who left to join ISIS and have consequently had their citizenship revoked.  For this section, she compares 12 countries’ policies, focusing on the potential long-term impacts they could have not just on ISIS fighters and their wives, but on the children being raised in massive refugee camps like Al Hawl.  The threat of radicalization within these camps is dire, and long-term solutions on the fate of the refugees is urgently needed.  Throughout her book, Dr. Webber also considers the level of public awareness around these policies and what needs to change to ensure that they contribute to well-informed policy debates.  Dr. Webber hopes that by fostering a public conversation around these issues, voters can reorient their governments’ policies in a more rights-respecting direction.
 
Dr. Diane Webber, is a British trained attorney who worked for many years in London in private practice, focusing on criminal law, employment law and discrimination law and sports and entertainment law. She returned to university, earning a Masters and then a Doctorate in national security law at Georgetown Law. Diane now lives in Washington D.C, where she researches and has published a number of articles and two books on a variety of comparative counter-terrorism and human rights issues. Diane has been a non-resident Senior Associate at CSIS since 2016.  She will be interviewed this morning by David Stewart, Co-Director of the Global Law Scholars Program and Director of the Center on Transnational Business and the Law at Georgetown Law School.  Stewart joined the faculty in 2008 following a career in the Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State, where he served as Assistant Legal Adviser for Private International Law, Diplomatic Law and Litigation, African Affairs, Human Rights and Refugees, Law Enforcement and Intelligence, and International Claims and Investment Disputes, among other positions. He was previously in private practice at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine in New York City. He also taught as an adjunct professor at the Law Center for over 25 years. He is past President and current Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Branch of the International Law Association and a member of the American Law Institute (co-Reporter for the Restatement (Fourth), Foreign Relations Law of the United States, published in 2018). He serves on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law and the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law. In 2008 (and again in 2012) the OAS General Assembly elected him to serve on the Inter-American Juridical Committee.