Armed Conflict • International Law
Law of Armed Conflict/IHL
1,649 Articles
Killing With Military Equipment Disguised as Civilian Objects is Perfidy
The Washington Post earlier this year revealed US involvement in a 2008 Israeli operation that killed Hezbollah’s Imad Mughniyah in a Damascus parking lot. In discussing various…
Defining “Meaningful Human Control” Over Autonomous Weapons
A semi-autonomous X-47B drone aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in 2013. Image Credit: US Navy via Wikimedia. What is the appropriate role of autonomy and human…
Beyond Drones: The Next-Generation of Autonomous Weapons Cannot be Developed in Secrecy
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…
Washington’s New Drone Sales Policy Could Export US-Style Drone War
This week, the United States released a new policy for the export of US-made drones. The policy conditions any drone sale on a pledge by the foreign buyer government that it will…
Did the U.S.-Israeli killing of Mughniyah violate international law?
Over the weekend, The Washington Post reported on a joint U.S.-Israeli operation that killed Imad Mughniyah—Hezbollah’s reported chief of international operations—on the…
International Cyber Governance: Engagement Without Agreement?
The following post is the latest installment of our Monday Reflections feature in which a different Just Security editor takes an in-depth look at the big stories from the…
One Way Sri Lanka Can Shield its ex-Defense Secretary from a U.S. Criminal Prosecution
Last week, Sri Lanka’s Justice Deputy Minister responded to an Op-Ed that I published in the New York Times, in which I described reasons that the United States can and should…
The Gov’t of Sri Lanka Responds to my NYT Op-Ed on U.S. War Crimes Probe of ex-Defense Secretary
The government of Sri Lanka’s Justice Deputy Minister has responded to an Op-Ed that I published in the New York Times in which I described the reasons that the United States…
How the U.S. Can Help Sri Lanka Turn the Corner—with a targeted war crimes prosecution
The Obama administration helped catalyze the United Nations’ ongoing efforts to bring accountability in Sri Lanka for mass war crimes committed in that country’s civil…
Ongwen Onward to the Hague: Lord’s Resistance Army Commander to Face Justice
Media are reporting that Dominic Ongwen, the Joseph Kony deputy who defected last week from the Lord’s Resistance Army, will be transferred to the International Criminal Court…
Is it Really Better to be Dead than Blind?
Late last year, the U.S. Navy announced that its $40 million laser weapon is finally ready for combat aboard the special operations staging ship USS Ponce. The laser, which “zaps…
The Sony Hack: Norms and North Korea
In statements on the Sony hack on Friday, both Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama highlighted the need to develop norms for state behavior in cyberspace. Tying the…