Brian Finucane

Non-Resident Senior Fellow

Brian Finucane is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at NYU School of Law. He is a senior adviser in the U.S. Program at the International Crisis Group. At Crisis Group he focuses on developing policies and institutional checks to decrease U.S. reliance on military tools in foreign affairs, including through legislative reforms of war powers and counterterrorism authorities. 

Prior to joining Crisis Group, Finucane worked for a decade in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State.  At the State Department he advised the U.S. government on legal and policy issues relating to war powers, the use of military force, and the law of war, particularly in the context of counterterrorism operations and the military campaign against the Islamic State. Earlier in his career, Finucane clerked for the Honorable Carlos F. Lucero of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.  He has published widely, including in Cornell Law Review, Yale Journal of International Law, International Law Studies, Foreign Policy, Just Security and Current Anthropology. He holds a B.A. in anthropology from Cornell University, a DPhil from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Yale University.  Follow him on Twitter @BCFinucane.