The Center on Law and Security (CLS) is seeking NYU School of Law students to serve as paid Research Assistants for two projects that the Center will undertake during the 2013-2014 school year. Interested students should have excellent research skills and superb oral and written communication skills, and a demonstrated interest in national security, intelligence and law enforcement matters, or the legal regulation of advanced technology. Research assistants will work closely with the CLS Executive Director, Fellows, and Faculty members, and with other interns and staff members at the Center. Research assistants will be expected to work approximately 10-15 hours per week on one of the following two projects:
· PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN CYBER-SECURITY: The Center is seeking a research assistant to work closely with its Senior Fellow on a project studying the ways that the public and private sectors are working together to address threats in cyber-space. In order to adequately address cyber-security threats, the government must cooperate closely with the private sector. This is because of the nature of the threat, the location of critical vulnerabilities, and the distribution of real-time information about threats among companies in the U.S. and abroad. But because of the speed of technological changes and the outmoded nature of much of the legislative and regulatory framework in these areas, the law often does not adequately facilitate solutions to many of the most pressing cyber-security problems.
The Center will establish a task force led by its Senior Fellow to consider the state of public/private cooperation on cyber-security. The Center’s task force will publish a white paper that will describe current problems in the public/private relationship on cyber-security; identify obstacles in the way of more effective cooperation between the public and private sectors; and make recommendations for changes in law and policy to facilitate a more effective response to cyber-security threats. The student will be the primary researcher for the task force, helping to organize task force meetings, and to do research for the report.
· INTELLIGENCE REFORM AND OVERSIGHT: During the 2013-2014 school year, the Center on Law and Security will begin a project on comparative intelligence oversight. The global strategic landscape is unsettled. The war in Afghanistan is winding down, the war on terrorism continues to evolve, and next generation threats like cyber-war loom increasingly large. At the same time governance is fragmenting in the new Middle East, and strategic dialogue with China remains uncertain. In this environment, intelligence agencies will continue to take on greater prominence, not only in executing covert operations (drones, cyber-warfare), but also in ensuring that the government is collecting and analyzing the information needed to navigate a world in flux.
As intelligence agencies evolve, so too does intelligence oversight need to change—a point made more acute by recent revelations of classified information about electronic surveillance. The Center’s intelligence oversight project will analyze innovative ways of overseeing the activities of intelligence agencies, not only to guard against abuses, but also to ensure that they are focusing on appropriate priorities. The Center will approach this question from a comparative perspective in order to understand on the ways that intelligence oversight works (and does not work) in the liberal democratic world, and how best to adapt oversight mechanisms to meet rapidly-evolving situations.
Interested students should submit a one-page cover letter, law school transcript (1L students should submit undergraduate transcripts), and a resume to Sarvenaz Bakhtiar, the Center’s Director of Operations, by Monday, September 9, 2013 (send all documents to Bakhtiar@nyu.edu).