{"id":518,"date":"2026-08-27T16:40:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalconsumerreportss.com\/?p=518"},"modified":"2026-08-27T16:40:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:40:32","slug":"rational-security-the-all-takin-and-no-givin-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalconsumerreportss.com\/?p=518","title":{"rendered":"Rational Security: The \u201cAll Takin\u2019 and No Givin\u2019\u201d Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>This week, Scott sat down with his <em>Lawfare<\/em> colleagues Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes, Public Service Fellow Julia Curlee, and Contributing Editor Alex Zerden to talk through the week\u2019s big news in national security, including:<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalconsumerreportss.com\/?p=517\">The Boat Strikes Aren\u2019t Part of a War. They\u2019re Murder.<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cSkynet\u2019s the Limit.\u201d A Russian drone guided entirely by onboard artificial intelligence\u2014with no human directing the final strike\u2014appears to have killed three civilians at a gas station in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on July 6, in what experts believe may be the first killings carried out by a fully autonomous Russian weapon. As both armies race toward greater battlefield autonomy\u2014driven in part by electronic warfare that jams the radio links piloted drones rely on\u2014the strike marks a threshold that arms-control experts have long warned about: machines, not people, deciding whom to kill. What do we make of this development, and what does it mean for the laws of war?<\/li>\n<li>\u201cRial Talk.\u201d Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled a new round of sanctions on Iran and what he called its \u201cenablers,\u201d branding the campaign \u201cOperation Economic Outcast\u201d and promising an \u201ceconomic D-Day\u201d aimed at severing every financial lifeline that sustains the regime. The measures target a global network of brokers, shadow-fleet vessels, and firms moving Iranian oil, along with Tehran\u2019s access to digital assets, gold, aviation, and shipping\u2014though Bessent conspicuously held back the biggest penalties on some major trading partners like China, favoring \u201cquiet diplomacy\u201d instead. The announcement lands with Iran\u2019s currency at record lows and the U.S.-Iran war grinding into its sixth month after a ceasefire window lapsed. Is maximum economic pressure a substitute for military force\u2014and will it actually work?<\/li>\n<li>\u201cSorry, Not Sorry.\u201d Trade talks between Washington and Ottawa collapsed late last week, and at the stroke of midnight on Aug. 21st, President Trump\u2019s 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods\u2014everything from hockey equipment and furniture to liquor and clothing\u2014took effect. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who blamed the breakdown on last-minute \u201cuneconomic\u201d and \u201cunfair\u201d U.S. demands, vowed to match the tariffs \u201cdollar for dollar\u201d with his own duties on U.S. steel, dairy, appliances, and electronics starting September 8, and went so far as to say Canada is \u201cat war\u201d after being \u201cattacked.\u201d With the future of the USMCA free-trade pact suddenly in doubt, how did two of the world\u2019s closest trading partners get here, and where does the escalation go next?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"110px\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.acast.com\/60427f9d34b9a27f4b6e3a8d\/6a9052ae3c34c5ade96ecca3\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In object lessons, Ben is not giving away his shot to call out the Daily Caller on not delivering on its headline. Julia is reminding us of her love of all things <em>Lawfare<\/em>. Scott reminds us that the world may never be the same after seeing it through the eyes of a poet. And Alex is bobbing his head to his reimagining of Bombs Over Baghdad.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalconsumerreportss.com\/?p=515\">The Church Bells Still Ring<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To receive ad-free podcasts, become a <em>Lawfare <\/em>Material Supporter at www.patreon.com\/lawfare. You can also support <em>Lawfare <\/em>by making a one-time donation at .<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalconsumerreportss.com\/?p=513\">Scaling Laws: Is Meta\u2019s Oversight Board a Model for AI Governance?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scott Anderson, Benjamin Wittes, Julia Curlee, and Alex Zerden talk through the week\u2019s big news in national security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armed-conflict","category-executive-branch"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rational Security: The \u201cAll Takin\u2019 and No Givin\u2019\u201d Edition - National Consumer Reports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalconsumerreportss.com\/?p=518\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rational Security: The \u201cAll Takin\u2019 and No Givin\u2019\u201d Edition - 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