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.
3,526 Articles

After 16 Years of War, Senate Finally Debates Need for War Debate
After 15 years of no debate on the floor of the Congress since the last war authorization and 16 years of war—the longest in the nation’s history—the U.S. Senate spent 45…

Senate Appropriations Bill Rejects Trump’s Efforts to Downsize State Department and USAID
Last week, the Senate Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), approved a State & Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2018.…

Erik Prince’s ‘New Band of Flying Tigers’ is a Sequel We Don’t Need
It shouldn’t be too surprising that in his recent New York Times op-ed calling for an infusion of private contractors into Afghanistan, Erik Prince sidestepped any discussion…

South Sudan: The Crisis Continues
The humanitarian crisis in South Sudan continues to worsen with civilians growing increasingly desperate and conditions showing little sign of improvement. July saw the greatest…

Legal Questions About the Airstrike Against the ISIS “Happy Journeys” Convoy
This week American-led airstrikes deterred the advance of a convoy carrying a group of ISIS fighters and civilians as it traveled from Lebanon to an ISIS safe-haven in Syria. The…

What Can Stop the Next Black Hawk Down: Risks to Special Operation Forces in the Trump Era
(Editors’ note: This article first appeared as a three-part series. We are reproducing it here in full.) Twenty-four years ago this month, President Bill Clinton, a first-term…

Preventing the Next Black Hawk Down
(Editors’ note: This article is the third of a three-part series by the author on the Trump administration’s use of special operations. Read parts I and II here and here.)…

The Unstable Status Quo: The Trump Administration’s Approach to Special Operations
(Editors’ note: This article is the second of a three-part series by the author on the Trump administration’s use of special operations. Read part I here.) Donald Trump stormed…

Key U.S. Foreign Policy Positions—including Ambassador for War Crimes—Saved from Getting Axed
Just Security recently broke the story that the State Department was considering shuttering or downgrading certain functional offices and Senate-confirmed ambassadorships within…

Proposed 2019 Start Date for 9/11 Trial Faces Skepticism from Gitmo Judge
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The military commission proceeding against five detainees allegedly responsible for the September 11th terrorist attacks is slowly inching…

An Update of the Israel-Palestine-International Criminal Court Timeline
A lot has happened before the International Criminal Court since we last reported on the Palestine and related situations. The timeline below picks up where my last timeline of…

Protecting Financial Data in Cyberspace: Precedent for Further Progress on Cyber Norms?
Identifying the legal norms that apply in cyberspace remains highly challenging. The recent collapse of the 5th UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Developments in the Field…