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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3,526 Articles
Fire and smoke rise above buildings in Gaza City as Israeli warplanes target a governmental building, early on May 18, 2021 in Gaza City, Gaza.

Dispatch from Israel on Human Shields: What I Should’ve Said to a Dad on the Playground

Who's responsible for the deaths of those civilians in Gaza who were near areas where Hamas operates?
Spent bullet casings are seen lying on the ground near the spot where Chit Min Thu, 25, was killed in clashes on March 11, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: A Crisis Born from Impunity

The roots of the coup can be found both domestically, in the 2008 Constitution, and in the failure of the international community to hold Myanmar's military to account.
Indonesian police wearing face masks and carrying large guns guard the site of an ASEAN emergency meeting on Myanmar on April 24, 2021 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: The ASEAN Way Must Change

The regional bloc has long adopted a non-interventionist stance in the name of regional stability. But the Myanmar coup shows how this stance actually undermines stability - and…
Former Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda speaks during his trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, The Netherlands, on July 8, 2019.

The ICC Ntaganda Appeals Judgment: The End of Indirect Co-perpetration?

The complex and contested indirect co-perpetration theory of liability remains under a cloud at the ICC.
Girls attend their class at a school in Herat on May 9, 2021. A few wear face masks but many do not.

A Just Exit from Afghanistan

The US went to war to serve its own interests; it must acknowledge that those interests will only be served by an enduring peace.
A Myanmarese policeman, who fled Myanmar and crossed illegally to India, looks at a picture of detained Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on his social media at an undisclosed location in India's northeastern state of Mizoram on March 13, 2021. Other people sit on the ground nearby.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: The Other De-Platforming We Should Have Been Talking About  

Facebook has been moderating the Myanmar military's Facebook access for years. The military still used the platform to effectuate its coup. What can we learn from this failure…
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on International Women’s Day as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin listens during an announcement at the East Room of the White House March 8, 2021 in Washington, DC.

The Illegality of Targeting Civilians by Way of Belligerent Reprisal: Implications for U.S. Nuclear Doctrine

It is time for the United States to acknowledge that customary international law today prohibits targeting civilians in reprisal for an adversary’s violations of the law of war.
A general view of Pinlaung Township, in the Pa-O self-administered zone of Shan State in eastern-central Myanmar, shows clouds swirling around tree-covered mountains.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: A Northern View

A civil society leader from Myanmar's volatile northeast border reflects on the unthinkable challenges in her work since the coup - and the hidden blessings of life in a "conflict…
US psychologist James Mitchell speaks with an interviewer at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC on December 6, 2016.

Stopping Torture: Why Professional Governance Failed, and How It Can Do Better

Professionals -- psychologists, physicians, lawyers -- played key parts in enabling post-9/11 torture programs. Yet professionalism can also constrain state power. Gregg Bloche…
Monks take part in a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on March 11, 2021. They carry umbrellas reading, “R2P” standing for the Responsibility to Protect and “CRPH” standing for the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. The demonstrators wear face masks. Other demonstrators wear hard hats and raise three fingers in the air.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: Don’t Ignore the Religious Dimensions

The changing nature of how religion intersects with political protest reveals much about how the country as a whole is changing, and what its future holds.
Ukrainian officers of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) and OSCE employees watch as people walk across a destroyed bridge between the Ukraine-controlled territory and territory held by Russia-backed separatists at a checkpoint near the village of Stanytsia Luhanska, in Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine on August 1, 2019.

Ukraine’s Pandemic-Era Obligations to Civilians in Crimea and Donbas Under Humanitarian Law

Russia is not the sole State with such responsibilities. As the displaced sovereign, Ukraine retains certain residual obligations towards its citizens.

Trump’s Secret Rules for Drone Strikes and Presidents’ Unchecked License to Kill

FOIA lawsuit obtains Trump administration's playbook. Hina Shamsi writes about the broader lessons for secret presidential powers.
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