National Security and Free Speech
Overview
The United States has increasingly used sanctions and other economic tools to restrict speech and punish disfavoured speakers. The project shows how these misuses of national security tools not only undermine fundamental freedoms of speech, but also weaken the United States economically.
Although the United States has a longer history of using sanctions to restrict speech in the terrorism context, it has recently used sanctions and other economic tools to restrict political speech, attack universities, and shut down social media platforms. By linking national security concerns and economic policy to favoured and disfavoured viewpoints, the United States is not only betraying its fundamental values but also undermining the credibility of its national security exceptionalism, creating uncertain conditions for investors, and weakening the position of the US dollar and financial system. This project examines the misuses of economic tools for implausible national security goals and argues for both regulatory and statutory reforms to correct these misuses and restore free speech protections.
Team
Project director
Dr Joshua Andresen
Associate Professor of National Security and Foreign Relations Law
Biography
Joshua (JD, Yale; PhD, Northwestern) is an international lawyer working in national security and human rights law. His areas of expertise range from the law of armed conflict and international human rights law to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, including sanctions compliance and the regulation of cryptocurrencies and exchanges. Joshua’s recent writing has focused on legal questions that arise in modern conflict and counterterrorism operations due to power asymmetries, the geography of the battlespace, and technological developments, with influential pieces appearing in the Yale Journal of International Law, the Harvard National Security Journal, and an anthology by Oxford University Press. Given the practical focus of his work, Joshua has been called upon to advise states, provide expert opinions for international tribunals, and contribute to the work of UN Special Rapporteurs.
Prior to Surrey, Joshua was Senior Policy Advisor for Europe, Russia, and Central Asia in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He was also an Attorney-Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked in the Office of the Legal Adviser for African and Near Eastern Affairs and in the Office of the Legal Adviser for United Nations Affairs. Joshua’s work at the State Department was supported by a Robina Human Rights Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Yale Law School. Joshua’s international law and human rights experience includes work at the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the High Court of Bombay. While in law school, Joshua also worked to defend people facing the death penalty with the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Equal Justice Initiative. Prior to his law and policy work, Joshua was Associate Professor of Philosophy at the American University of Beirut.
Research outputs
- Andresen, Joshua (2026) ‘Sanctions, National Security, and Free Speech’
- Andresen, Joshua (2025) ‘Targeting Speech: The Mis- and Unintended Uses of U.S. Sanctions’
- Andresen, Joshua; Wang, Xiangnong (2024) ‘Treasury’s Reversal on Sanctions Authority Is a Victory for Free Speech’
- Andresen, Joshua; Noe, Nicholas (2024) ‘Talking to “the Enemy” Shouldn’t be Illegal’.