CNAS Launches National Security Law Program Led by Carrie Cordero

Washington, February 2, 2026 — The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) announced today the launch of its new National Security Law Program, led by CNAS Senior Fellow and General Counsel Carrie Cordero.

U.S. national security and foreign policy are inextricably linked to domestic and international legal frameworks. From debates over the reach of executive authorities, to the laws governing military engagement at home and abroad, to the intersection of national security and new technologies, legal analysis is central to the most critical national security and foreign policy issues of our time.

Analyzing applicable law to guide policy action is now more important than ever. The CNAS National Security Law Program will provide nonpartisan, expert-level legal analysis of how constitutional, international, and statutory law, as well as other relevant legal authorities, inform policy development and decisions.

Leveraging CNAS’s strong bipartisan convening power, the program will provide a platform for expert public dialogue and debate, as well as private discussions. The program will also provide opportunities to develop the next generation of national security law practitioners.

“Understanding and analyzing the relationship between the law and critical national security decisions is imperative for sound policymaking and grounding U.S. national security in the rule of law,” said Cordero, director of the program. “Through this program, we will work to bring legal clarity to the most pressing policy debates. I look forward to building a research agenda that tackles complex issues at the intersection of national security and the law and continues the CNAS tradition of delivering bold and actionable recommendations.”

The launch of this program comes on the back of timely and actionable analysis by Cordero and CNAS on recent national security legal debates, including interrogating the relationship between the law of armed conflict and strikes in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, a prescient commentary series on the laws governing National Guard deployments, an event showcasing the importance of judge advocates general (JAGs), and more.

Prior to joining CNAS, Cordero was in private practice and had served as director of national security studies and adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center. She spent the first part of her career in public service, including as counsel to the assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice and senior associate general counsel at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She previously served on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. She is a member of several advisory boards and regularly appears on CNN as a legal and national security analyst.

To further bolster its national security law expertise, CNAS is also welcoming Mark Nevitt as an adjunct senior fellow. Nevitt currently serves as an associate professor of law with tenure at Emory University School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 2022. His research examines environmental law, particularly how climate change disrupts established legal frameworks and creates national security challenges, and he has written extensively on the domestic deployment of the military.

Before entering academia, Nevitt served in the U.S. Navy as both a JAG and tactical jet aviator. He was an associate professor at Syracuse University College of Law and distinguished professor of leadership and law at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, as well as the Sharswood fellow and lecturer-in-law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Alongside Nevitt, Gary Corn—a current adjunct senior fellow for the CNAS Technology and National Security Program and director of the American University Washington College of Law’s Technology, Law & Security Program—will also support the new National Security Law Program’s research and analysis. Corn served 26 years on active duty in the U.S. Army as a military attorney practicing national security law at the highest levels within the Department of Defense. His final five years he served as the staff judge advocate (general counsel) to U.S. Cyber Command.