Strategic Lawyering: Realizing the Potential of Military Lawyers at the Strategic Level

摘要

Military lawyers provide legal advice at the tactical operational and strategic levels of war in six functional disciplines but the war on terrorism is placing increasingly complex demands on lawyers advising warfighters particularly at the strategic level. This study examines how the spectrum of legal analysis advice and advocacy required at the strategic level must expand to more effectively support the war on terrorism. Legal advisors to strategic leaders must consider and provide both proactive and responsive legal advice and support in lawfare -- the use of law as a weapon of war. The war on terrorism is a war of ideology. Lawyers who receive specialized training with emphasis on effective analysis reasoning advice and advocacy must play a direct and indirect role in winning this war of ideology. This study reviews examples of strategic issues in which military lawyers could have played a larger role and contributed to better issue resolution and argues that the military should employ legal support more aggressively to address strategic-level concerns. Finally recommendations are offered for reducing the gap between current Army legal advisors roles and those which this study considers desirable.