The Trump administration has continued its campaign of lethal strikes against suspected drug traffickers at sea. To date, 83 people have reportedly been killed in 21 strikes. The strikes have met increasing scrutiny both inside the United States and abroad, with some close U.S. allies reportedly suspending intelligence sharing over concerns of the illegality of the campaign, and recently surfaced reporting of the deliberate killing of two strike survivors receiving rare bipartisan attention from Congress.

On the fourth installment of the Murder on the High Seas series, cross-posted with NYU Law School’s Reiss Center on Law and Security, co-hosts Tess Bridgeman and Rachel Goldbrenner are joined by Rebecca Ingber and Brian Finucane to discuss the latest developments.

Show Note:

• Murder on the High Seas Part III (Oct. 21, 2025, also available on YouTube)
• Murder on the High Seas Part II — What We Know about U.S. Vessel Strikes One Month In (Oct. 7, 2025, also available on YouTube)
• Murder on the High Seas? What You Need to Know about the U.S. Strike on the Caribbean Vessel (Sep. 9, 2025, also available on YouTube)
• Unlawful Orders and Killing Shipwrecked Boat Strike Survivors: An Expert Backgrounder by Michael Schmitt, Ryan Goodman, and Tess Bridgeman (Dec. 1, 2025)
• Timeline of Vessel Strikes and Related Actions by Jeremy Chin, Margaret Lin, and Aidan Arasasingham (Nov. 21, 2025, updated regularly)
• Just Security’s Collection: U.S. Lethal Strikes on Suspected Drug Traffickers
• The NYU Law Reiss Center on Law and Security’s War Powers Resolution Reporting Project

Across the world, we’re witnessing a transformation in how corruption operates. It’s not just about individual bribery or isolated misconduct. In many places, powerful actors are reshaping state institutions themselves— weakening oversight, insulating allies from consequences, and redirecting public power toward private gain. This deeper structural transformation is often called state capture, and it has altered political systems from South Africa to Guatemala to Sri Lanka.

What is this form of corruption? How does it impact human rights? How can it be countered?

On this episode of the Just Security Podcast, Host Dani Schulkin is joined by Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Hastings and anti-corruption expert, to discuss the warning signs of this type of corruption, how the United States is showing worrying parallels, and what can be done to push back against it.

Show Notes:

• “Is the U.S. Becoming a Captured State? A Comparative Perspective,” by Naomi Roht-Arriaza on Just Security
• “When Guardrails Erode” Series by Dani Schulkin, Amy Markopolous, and Maya Nir on Just Security
• “The Anti-Corruption Tracker: Mapping the Erosion of Oversight and Accountability,” by Dani Schulkin, Amy Markopolous, and Maya Nir on Just Security
• Fighting Grand Corruption: Transnational and Human Rights Approaches in Latin America and Beyond by Naomi Roht-Arriaza

On Nov. 13, the Trump administration took the unprecedented step of adding four groups in Europe to the U.S. government’s list of specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs). The administration also stated its intent to add each of these entities to the State Department’s list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), claiming that all four are affiliated with “Antifa.”

The development marks an escalation in the administration’s efforts to recast anti-fascist activism as a matter of national security, carrying far-reaching legal and political consequences. Experts think the move could lay the groundwork for targeting organizations and activists here in the United States, potentially undermining the right to free speech.

Tom Joscelyn, a senior fellow at Just Security, is joined by Tom Brzozowski, former counsel for Domestic Terrorism at the U.S. Department of Justice, to discuss what the new designations mean for civil liberties, and how they might reshape the boundaries of permissible speech and association.

Show Notes:

• “How Designating Antifa as a Foreign Terrorist Organization Could Threaten Civil Liberties” by Tom Brzozowski (Just Security, October 27, 2025)
• Just Security’s Terrorism and Violent Extremism Archive
• Just Security’s Counterterrorism Archive