The United States faces a series of difficult policy and strategic questions with respect to its participation in the upcoming International Criminal court (ICC) Review Conference at Kampala, Uganda. The conference will consider the addition of the definition of the crime of aggression as well as a restriction on the rights of states to opt out of the Court's jurisdiction over war crimes. The conference may also consider proposals that the United States strongly opposed in the 1998 Rome negotiations. This Council Special Report will recommend primary and secondary objectives for the United States at the conference and suggest steps the Obama administration should take to best empower American negotiators to achieve those objectives.

In the wake of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, there is a clear need for effective systems of national and international justice and accountability. Made possible by the generous support of the MacArthur Foundation, the CFR Program on International Justice examines the work of international criminal tribunals, including the International Criminal Court, and issues such as universal jurisdiction. The program is directed by Adjunct Senior Fellows John B. Bellinger III and Matthew C. Waxman. The program published a special report to prepare for the International Criminal Court's seven year review conference, which took place in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010. In 2011, the program produced a special report that recognizes the limitations of current Hague-based international justice systems and provides a strategy for promoting national-level justice and accountability mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators of mass atrocity crimes.

This roundtable series focuses on issues that influence U.S. defense policy, such as the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, civil-military relations, and debates about the transformation of the U.S. military and the future of warfare. It is made possible by the generous support of Roger Hertog.

Prompted by the critical security challenges facing our country, and the growing need to fully engage the private sector in meeting these challenges, the Council is sponsoring the Roundtable Series on the Role of the Private Sector in Homeland Security. The series is directed by Dr. Stephen Flynn, the Council's Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies. The aim of the Roundtable is to vigorously address some of the pressing issues highlighted in Flynn's recently released book, America the Vulnerable, How Our Government is Failing to Protect Us from Terrorism.

The design of the initiative is a sustained dialogue between homeland security experts and a small high-level group of decision makers from the private sector. Bringing these two groups together, the Council hopes to promote a forum for frank discussion leading to valuable insights into difficult security issues and the pursuit of solutions in the context of our present political and economic environment.

This study group will result in a book that examines four major technological revolutions of the past 500 years (Gunpowder, Industrial, Mechanization, and Computerization) and how they transformed warfare and the international balance-of-power. For each military revolution, Mr. Boot will provide dramatic narratives of key conflicts--from the battle of the Spanish Armada to the recent war in Afghanistan--that highlight the effects of changing technologies on strategy. In addition, Mr. Boot applies the lessons of history to current dilemmas, examining crucial questions such as how long America's military advantage will last, and what the United States can do to preserve its hegemony.

This project has been made possible with the generous support from the following:

Smith Richardson Foundation

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Randolph Foundation

Roger and Susan Hertog

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

Carnegie Corporation

John M. Olin Foundation

Project Vice-Chair: Charlotte Ku Co-sponsered by ASIL

The Roundtable Series, “Old Rules, New Threats,” is a project on global governance that brings administration officials together with lawyers, professors and policymakers to look at areas in foreign policy and national security where the rules of the road, formal and informal, may or may not need to be adapted, amended, or replaced to address the challenges currently facing the nation.

The roundtable addresses a broad range of security issues, including threats related to force and war, as well as challenges requiring transnational cooperation. Past sessions have explored the administration’s announced doctrine of preemption; humanitarian intervention; military tribunals and unlawful combatants; use of force and the laws of war; and regulating the movement of black and gray market goods, technology, and people. Memos prepared by roundtable speakers and summary reports of the roundtable meetings are posted below. The roundtable, which met six times beginning in November 2002, will reconvene in the fall of 2003.

The Council and ASIL, with the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, will begin the 2003 season with a one-day conference on September 19. The conference will focus on four areas: intervention and weapons proliferation; global climate change; bringing war criminals to justice; and counterterrorism and transnational law enforcement.