Listen to the School of Law’s Talking Foreign Policy radio show

Those who work and study at Case Western Reserve University are invited to listen to the next episode of the School of Law’s Talking Foreign Policy radio show. Hosted by Michael Scharf, former co-dean of the School of Law and president of the American Branch of the International Law Association, this episode will discuss the legal and policy implications of U.S. airstrikes on narcotics vessels. 

This episode will also feature expert insights from:

• Harold Hongju Koh, former dean of Yale Law School, assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor during the Clinton Administration and legal advisor of the Department of State during the Obama Administration; 
• Greg Noone, retired U.S. Navy Captain, former director of the Fairmont State University National Security and Intelligence Program and former head of the International Law Branch in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s International and Operational Law Division;
• Rebecca Ingber, professor at Cardozo Law School and senior fellow at the NYU School of Law’s Reiss Center on Law and Security and former counselor on International Law in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 2021 to 2023; and
• Milena Sterio, Distinguished University Professor at Cleveland State University College of Law and managing director of the Public International Law and Policy Group. 

Individuals interested in this episode will have an opportunity to livestream this broadcast on Cleveland’s NPR Station, WKSU 89.7 FM, Monday, Dec. 1 at 9 a.m. Or, visit the law school’s website to access the episode after it airs.  

About this episode

For the past three months, the United States Navy has conducted airstrikes against more than 20 foreign vessels off the coast of Latin America suspected of transporting narcotics—killing nearly 100 people. President Trump maintains that the airstrikes are a lawful exercise of the international law right of self-defense against drug cartels and has notified the U.S. Congress that the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with the drug cartels, thereby justifying lethal force.