The Implications of Counterterrorism Policy

Operating inside the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs does not by itself make a military action against a terrorist entity lawful.

The executive branch conducts counterterrorism operations under two congressional authorizations passed more than two decades ago. The paper argues that acting within those authorizations and acting lawfully are not the same claim, and that the distance between them has widened as the authorizations have been stretched to cover entities that did not exist when they were written.