"Civil liberties will be an important aspect of foreign policy and national security in the coming years," says CFR Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy Matthew C. Waxman. The winner of the 2012 U.S. presidential elections will face challenges related to counterterrorism powers and practices, as well as challenges related to privacy rights, he says.
The president will have to decide how to put "detention, interrogation, and lethal targeting policy on durable footing, in light of the fact that al-Qaeda remains a threat, but one that is increasingly dispersed and decentralized," Waxman says.
The U.S. government will also have to balance privacy protection with "terrorism threats, cyber security threats, and modern information and communication technologies," he says.
Source: CFR
