Armed Conflict
Law of Armed Conflict/IHL
1,632 Articles
New Poll: American Support for Drone Strikes Plummets When Innocent US Civilians Killed [Updated]
A 2009 US Air Force photo shows an armed MQ-9 Reaper drone taxiing in Kandahar, Afghanistan. US policymakers need to know the answer to a simple question about American attitudes…
Contextualizing Proportionality Analysis? A Response to Schmitt and Merriam on Israel’s Targeting Practices
In a recent post on this blog, Michael Schmitt and John Merriam discussed Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL), based on their recent visit to Israel…
Once again: “Which agency?” and “How secret?” are separate and independent questions
Karen DeYoung has a story in the Post this morning about an ongoing debate on the Hill concerning whether the CIA “should be in the drone business at all, or if such lethal…
US Needs to Stop Tiptoeing Around the “Killer Robots” Threat
When it comes to banning “killer robots,” the United States is going to take some convincing. That was one major take-away from April’s multilateral meeting on the matter…
We Need a Full, Transparent Review of the US Targeted Killing Program
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
Ten More Strikes the Obama Administration Should Immediately Acknowledge and Investigate
The Obama administration took a long overdue step toward transparency for its “targeted” killing program when it last week openly acknowledged and took responsibility for the…
CIA Exemption from President’s Restrictions on Drone Strikes in Pakistan
In May 2013, President Obama announced a new directive which presumably places heavy restrictions on drone strikes and other lethal operations outside of the Afghan theater. One…
US Drone Killings of Western Aid Workers Highlight Problems of Nebulous War
President Obama’s apology for the accidental killings of two innocent hostages by US drones in Pakistan has led to understandable criticism of the United States’ secret drone…
Rebooting DOD’s Cyber Strategy
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
A Legal and Operational Assessment of Israel’s Targeting Practices
Over the course of 50 days in the summer of 2014, the Israeli Defense Forces conducted a high-intensity air and ground campaign against Hamas in the Gaza strip. Sparked by the…
Three Quick Thoughts on the Drone Strike in Pakistan That Killed Two Innocent Civilians
Below are my initial thoughts on today’s tragic news that a January 2015 US “targeted killing” drone strike in Pakistan killed two innocent civilians held as hostages…
Petitions, Human Rights, and Government Service
In recent weeks I was asked to sign a petition circulated by Sarah Cleveland and Mike Posner strongly defending Harold Koh’s role and offering their views on the integrity…