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
A Primer on the “Cessation of Hostilities” in Syria and International Law
In case you missed it, the US and Russia brokered a “cessation of hostilities” arrangement for the war-torn county of Syria that went into effect last Saturday, February…
Partition of Syria as Plan B?: The Case for Caution
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…
A Quick Update on Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence
Earlier this month, the UK Supreme Court held oral argument in Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence, a crucial case concerning the legality of British detention policy in Afghanistan.…
Improving the Recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Biodefense Report
The tragic saga of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan from Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) serves as a perfect demonstration of the shambolic state of biodefense in the United States in…
Torture and Transparency in the Military Commissions
America’s war court is back in session at Guantánamo, with yet more pretrial proceedings in the case of the five 9/11 defendants (alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,…
The President’s Plan for Closing the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility
It’s here. The President proposes that once current transfer efforts are completed this year, the remaining 30 to 60 GTMO detainees ought to be detained in a U.S. facility. This…
Closing Guantánamo, Episode XXVIII: This Time, We Really, Really (Really!) Mean It…
Word has it that, later today, the Obama administration will release its long-ballyhooed Plan. To. Close. Guantánamo. (Not to be confused, mind you, with the original plan from…
How Should International Law Deal With Doubt in the Era of Drones and Big Data?
Recent reports on the NSA’s use of metadata and machine learning to generate intelligence for drone strikes in Pakistan spotlights the somewhat less-discussed legal concerns…
Iraq and Syria: Prospects for Accountability
On February 10, 2016, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission convened a congressional briefing devoted to the topic of advancing accountability for the commission of international…
“More Than a Domestic Mechanism”: Options for Hybrid Justice in Sri Lanka
For nearly three decades, the government of Sri Lanka fought with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but after years of resistance, the new government has committed to…
D.C. Circuit Quietly Set to Hear Major National Security Appeals
Given the rather significant legal news of the past four days, it’s easy to forget that a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit (Tatel, Griffith, & Sentelle, JJ.) is…
When Did the War With al-Qaeda Start?
On Wednesday, the DC Circuit is scheduled to hear oral arguments on a request to halt the military commission prosecution of Guantánamo detainee Abd al-Rahim Hussein al-Nashiri.…