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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3,347 Articles
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The Defense Department Stands Alone on Target Selection

A deeply troubling provision in the Defense Department’s new Law of War Manual suggests that commanders are not legally required to minimize civilian casualties when selecting…
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Human Shields and Proportionality: A Reply to Charlie Dunlap

In its new Law of War Manual, the Defense Department takes the position that harm to human shields, no matter how extensive, will be “understood not to prohibit attacks under…
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Human Shields and the DOD Law of War Manual: Can’t We Improve the Debate?

In a recent post, Prof. Adil Ahmad Haque attacked the new Defense Department Law of War Manual’s position on proportionality and human shields. Evidently, Haque thinks that the…
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Reflections on the Israeli Report on the Gaza Conflict

During last year’s Operation Protective Edge, a fascinating data visualization published in Medium revealed the extent of political polarization on Israel and Gaza and the scarcity…
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The Defense Department’s Indefensible Position on Killing Human Shields

The Defense Department apparently thinks that it may lawfully kill an unlimited number of civilians forced to serve as involuntary human shields in order to achieve even a trivial…
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Questions That Should be Asked About Seal Team 6 and the Laws of War

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…
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The CIA Can’t Keep Its Drone Propaganda Straight

This week, one government intelligence agency, after patiently and methodically tracking a terrorist leader for months through precise electronic surveillance, successfully targeted…
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Delay and Detention at Obama’s Guantánamo: The Missing PRBs

As Steve Vladeck noted last week, lawyers for Guantánamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi filed a motion in his habeas corpus case demanding that the Obama administration…
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Abu Ghraib and the Perversion of the Political Question Doctrine

I’ve written extensively about the important and complex legal questions raised by state-law tort suits against private military contractors, many of which have arisen in…
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Guest Post: Israel’s Report on the 2014 Gaza Conflict

The Israeli government released its complete report on the 2014 Gaza Conflict (“Operation Protective Edge”) on Sunday (some chapters have been available online the past few…
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Guest Post: Exploding Civilian Involvement and “The People’s Perspectives” Report

Last month, the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) published first-hand views of civilians living in conflict-affected countries, something “largely absent” from discussions…
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The OPM Hack and the New DOD Law of War Manual

Last Friday was a big day in cybersecurity news. OPM announced that, in addition to the compromise of the personnel information of federal employees revealed on June 4, Chinese…
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