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.
3,544 Articles
A New War?: The United States Involvement in Yemen’s Internal Armed Conflict [Updated]
In an op-ed in the Guardian last week, I argued that the United States appears to have become militarily directly involved in fighting a domestic insurgency in Yemen as an ally…
Kenya in a Global Non-International Armed Conflict Linked to September 11?
A brief recently filed by the President of Kenya before the International Criminal Court makes a provocative claim: Kenya is involved “in a war with radical Islamist groups”…
Invented (and Real) Criticisms of the Human Rights Watch Report on Targeted Killings in Yemen
The major reports by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) on targeted killings make valuable contributions to public debate (see Sarah Knuckey’s Guide to the…
Ghailani: Constitutional “Cross-Ruffing,” and Why I Worry…
I’ve now had a chance to read yesterday’s Second Circuit decision in Ghailani, affirming the conviction of the one terrorism suspect transferred from Guantánamo to…
Second Circuit Affirms Ghailani’s Conviction and Sentence
This morning’s Second Circuit decision unanimously affirming the conviction and sentence of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is not surprising, but it may well be significant, especially…
IHL, Transparency, and the Heyns’ UN Drones Report
In his critique of Christof Heyns’ new UN report on the right to life in the context of lethal drone strikes, Eric Jensen erects two straw men and then proceeds to knock them…
The Report of the UN Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Executions: Law or Advocacy?
As has already been discussed in several postings, the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions has been published and deserves close attention. To the…
Targeted Killings — The US Power to Kill and the Yemeni Power to Capture
[For Just Security’s other coverage of yesterday’s Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports on targeted killings, see Sarah Knuckey’s guide to the…
The Problematic “Belonging To” Analogy: A Response to Goodman
[Editor’s note: Ryan Goodman replies to Professor Heller in a subsequent post.] In a recent post here at Just Security, Ryan Goodman offered a novel – and characteristically…
The Charles Taylor Appeal & The Scope of Accomplice Liability
I earlier flagged the release of the Charles Taylor appeals judgment. This post deconstructs the opinion more closely in light of the Perišić precedent and also addresses the…
Human Rights Groups Release Investigation Reports into US Targeted Killings: A Guide to the Issues
Today, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) released two detailed studies of US targeted killings in Yemen and Pakistan, putting forward specific evidence of…
Five Questions We Should All Be Asking About the NSA and the US Targeted Killing Program
The Washington Post’s latest piece on NSA surveillance, based on Edward Snowden’s leaked documents, provides a glimpse into the US government’s highly secretive process for…