Armed Conflict • International Law
Law of Armed Conflict/IHL
1,762 Articles
Ukraine Update: the ICJ Proceedings & Options for Justice in the United States
With the Congressional hearings on Russia dominating the news, this post provides an update on proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the matter of Ukraine…
U.S. Arms Sale to Saudis Spells Legal Trouble for State Department Officials
In December, the Obama administration suspended a large weapon sale to Saudi Arabia due to concerns about widespread civilian casualties from Saudi airstrikes in Yemen. The Trump…
Targeting Yemen and the Repeal of Obama Constraints
Over at the New York Times, Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt have written an excellent article on the Trump Administration’s decision to declare three parts of Yemen “areas…
Why a Broad Definition of “Violence” in Cyber Conflict is Unwise and Legally Unsound
International Humanitarian Law (IHL, aka the Law of Armed Conflict) is not intended to outlaw conflict. It is meant to regulate conflict in order to reduce its impact on civilians…
Violence in Cyberspace: Are Disruptive Cyberspace Operations Legal under International Humanitarian Law?
It is already widely acknowledged that cyberspace has become the fifth domain of warfare, and militaries around the world are training various cyber units, who will be supporting…
Correcting the Record—Further Thoughts on the Intelligence Report on Civilian Casualties
In an exchange of posts over the past few weeks about the most recent casualty figures released by the Director of National Intelligence for theaters outside areas of active hostilities,…
Russia Maintains Objection to General Assembly’s Mechanism for Syria
On 21 December 2016, the General Assembly (GA) adopted Resolution 71/248, creating a new body to collect evidence of international crimes in Syria (formally known as “the International,…
Call for Papers: “Revisiting the Role of International Law in National Security”
Many conversations in the U.S. about situations of armed conflict – within civil society, academia, and the U.S. government – center on “national security law,” often drawing…
Letter to the Editor: Response to A Right to Fight?
My sincere thanks to Prof. Adil Haque for engaging with me in a debate, both here and at Opinio Juris, over the moral function of the laws of war. To recap, Adil proposed lowering…
Reasons to Distrust Intelligence Report on Civilian Casualties
Ryan Goodman is absolutely correct in what he wrote yesterday at Just Security. I have not proved the claim he attributes to me, namely, that “there is a gross underestimation…
A Just Security Debate!—What’s With the Criticism of the DNI Report on Civilian Casualties?
A U.S. Air Force MQ-1B Predator drone, carrying a Hellfire air-to-surface missile taxis after landing at a secret air base in the Persian Gulf region on January 7, 2016. In a recent…
How Trump’s Team Can Use Obama’s Counterterrorism Playbook to Defeat al-Qa’ida and ISIL
The First of Many Challenges. The U.S. military’s January 29 raid in Yemen vividly illustrates the high-stakes challenges involved in counterterrorism operations – particularly…