Armed Conflict

Just Security’s expert authors provide analysis on the legal, policy, and strategic dimensions of armed conflict, including the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war, counterterrorism operations, conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, and other armed conflicts across the globe, with a focus on international humanitarian law, war crimes and accountability, mitigating and remedying civilian harm, and the humanitarian impacts of warfare.

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3,331 Articles
Members of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces stand guard as Iraqis flee the Old City of Mosul on July 3, 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters.

The Necessity of Enforcing Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in the Context of Counterterrorism

International legal norms risk marginalization in the rush to embrace ill-defined counterterrorism standards in multiple settings.
El Salvador's President is photographed next to the files that contain case information The massacre of El Mozote during a press conference at a presidential home in San Salvador, El Salvador, on September 24, 2020.

On El Salvador’s 1981 El Mozote Massacre, President Bukele Sides With Impunity

Survivors of the largest single massacre in modern Latin American history want him charged for failure to comply with a judicial order for documents.
Troops at the conclusion of Exercise Steele Crescendo. A Canadian soldier in the foreground of the photo carries spent light anti-tank weapons. The exercise allowed NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Latvia to practice coordinated defensive firing using live ammunition.

Geneva Convention III Commentary: Implementing POW Convention in Multinational Operations

[Just Security is publishing a series on the ICRC’s updated Commentaries to the Third Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War (2020). This GCIII Commentary series is published…
Map of Finland with an abstract pattern representing networks.

Finland Sets Out Key Positions on International Cyber Law

Analysis of the Government of Finland's new statement on international law in cyberspace.
Asylum seekers in life rafts on the Aegean Sea

Torture by Rescue: Asylum-Seeker Pushbacks in the Aegean

Since at least March, Greece has been systematically returning asylum seekers who have arrived on its shores – who have the right to adjudication of their asylum claims – to…
Secretary-General António Guterres and Volkan Bozkir, President of the seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly, attends the screening of a pre-recorded concert. 22 October 2020. New York, United States of America.

National Security at the United Nations This Week (Oct. 16 – 23)

UNSMIL hails ceasefire in Libya On Friday, the parties to the nine-year Libyan war agreed to a ceasefire in Geneva. The head of the U.N. Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Stephanie…
A military tuck of the United Nations (UN) peacekeepers soldiers is parked in front of Chinese United Nations peacekeeping forces camp on June 1, 2016 in Gao.

Great Power Competition Versus Counterterrorism: A False Dichotomy

Not only are these strategic priorities not necessarily at odds with one another, but in fact, they often overlap and complement each other.
An image from the Updated Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 Treatment of Prisoners of War shows The 'Division Daguet' on February 26th, 1991 In Iraq.

Geneva Convention III Commentary: What Significance for Women’s Rights?

Analysis of the ICRC's updated Commentaries to the Geneva Convention for Prisoners of War (POWs).
An Armenian soldier walks through the trenches on the frontline on October 20, 2020 near Aghdam, Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: Shortage of Specifics Complicates Search for Solutions

As scholars debate how international law applies in this conflict, the lack of detail makes it hard to know what is taking place on the ground.
This photo taken on September 12, 2019 shows people walking next to a Uighur cemetery in Shayar in the region of Xinjiang.

The 116th Congress’s Record on International Human Rights: The Good, the Bad, and the Unfinished Business

Action and inaction on Uyghurs, Yemen, the Rohingya, asylum seekers, Venezuela, and more highlight the crises facing the next Congress.
An Azeri soldier walks near a destroyed vehicle in the city of Jabrayil, where Azeri forces regained control during the fighting with Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh on October 16, 2020.

Absence of US Diplomacy on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Risks a Wider War

If the war were limited to Azerbaijan and Armenia, the world might be forgiven for sitting this out. But Turkey, Russia, Iran and others are in deep, too.
An armed villager arrives at a neighbor’s home destroyed by shelling following an overnight attack during the ongoing fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the Martakert region on October 15, 2020.

Turkey Fuels Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: Drones, Mercenaries and Dreams of Imperial Resurgence

Turkey’s wide-ranging political and military support for the Azeri attack reflects President Erdoğan’s bellicose approach to solving problems in the region.
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