Council Comments
Anne-Marie Slaughter
Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

The most important question facing the next president is how to restore American respect for international law, in both perception and reality. Because of the dramatic rejection of international legal constraints in the first administration of George W. Bush, even fair-minded efforts to return to the rule of law in some areas in recent years has had little impact. The hardest legal issue, but one that simply must be addressed, is to agree on a set of interpretations of the Geneva Conventions, or perhaps even amendments, that define clearly what is permissible and impermissible in interrogating individuals suspected of terrorism who may have detailed knowledge about future attacks. The next task, which must be pursued simultaneously, is to revive and update the Non-Proliferation Treaty, with the full commitment of the United States to live up to our part of the bargain. Many other issues come to mind, but overall, the next President will have to decide on a menu of both symbolic and substantive acts and carry them out quickly and decisively. He or she will have to remind the American people, and convince the world, that the best safeguard of liberty is not force, but law.