This summer, Strauss Center Distinguished Scholar and Law School Professor Robert M. Chesney was on the front lines of the national debate on the detention and trial of terrorism suspects. Just after teaching his last class of the spring semester, Chesney traveled to Washington, DC, where he spent the next several months with the President’s Detainee Policy Task Force.

Created by executive order the day after President Obama’s inauguration, the Detainee Policy Task Force is responsible for examining the options for long-term U.S. policy regarding the apprehension, detention, trial and disposition of persons captured in combat and counterterrorism operations. Its closely guarded deliberations have been the focus of intense speculation.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have played a part in this process,” Chesney said. “It is about far more than Guantanamo, of course. Ultimately, the goal is to identify a mix of detention-related options that are lawful, sustainable and that best advance our strategic goals. This requires a realistic and sophisticated understanding of what each of the tools can offer, where the legal boundaries lie and how the calibration of one tool might impact the utility of another.”

Chesney was a natural choice for the Task Force. His scholarship spans a wide spectrum, from terrorism prosecutions to military detention, and he is known for his even-handed approach to issues that are often highly politicized. In some respects, however, his selection was quite unusual. The Task Force staff consists almost entirely of career government officials and military personnel; Chesney was the only outsider to be brought into the process.

“I could not have been more impressed with my colleagues,” Chesney said. “Without exception they were hard-working, intelligent and apolitical, with backgrounds ranging from prosecution to special operations to intelligence analysis. It is one thing to study these issues academically, and quite another to live through the interagency process on a daily basis as it struggles to resolve them in a climate of intense political and media scrutiny. I was exceptionally fortunate to have had the opportunity, and will be a far better teacher and scholar going forward because of it.”

“We are so pleased to have a scholar of Professor Chesney’s caliber and expertise at the Strauss Center,” said Francis J. Gavin, Director of the Strauss Center. “His service with the Detainee Policy Task Force highlights the critical juncture between the academic perspective and actual policy development and implementation, something that is key to the Strauss Center’s mission.”

As a Strauss Center Distinguished Scholar, Chesney heads the Strauss Center’s 21st Century Law and Policy Program, which aims to develop creative, well-informed and realistic responses to pressing issues in the complex relationship between law and policy in the realms of security and international affairs. The Program supports original research, conferences and speakers. Upcoming events and activities include:

• A symposium in 2010 focused on the intersection of intelligence collection, privacy and technology, in partnership with the Texas Law Review;

• An annual national security law workshop that combines the presentation of papers by up-and-coming scholars with law of war training provided by instructors from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.S. Army JAG School; and

• The popular national security law listserv operated by Chesney for scholars, journalists, practitioners and anyone else with an interest in the field.

The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law is a non-partisan research center at The University of Texas at Austin dedicated to promoting policy-relevant scholarship on the problems and opportunities created by our increasingly globalized and interconnected world. For more information on the Strauss Center, please visit www.StraussCenter.org.