The decision to kill other humans lies at the heart of concerns over Autonomous Weapon Systems (AWS). Human judgment regarding whether lives will be taken and objects destroyed during armed conflict inherently triggers an evaluation under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) as to the lawfulness of an attack.… continue »
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson testified Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee as part of the House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Much of the hearing focused on Johnson’s decision, announced on January 6, to designate election infrastructure as “critical infrastructure.” Both Rep.… continue »
East African heads of state and foreign ministers gathered in Ethiopia on June 12 to address the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis in South Sudan. While the discussion centered on reaching a ceasefire and improving humanitarian assistance, political leaders missed an important opportunity to support the establishment of a Hybrid Court for South Sudan, as required by the 2015 peace agreement.… continue »
I. Foreign Policy
II. Trump and Russia
Russian spy ships stationed off the U.S. coast, provocative overflights of U.S. warships, and deployments of U.S. tanks in Central Europe are no longer artifacts of the Cold War, they are troubling features of the current international security environment. Whether and to what extent recurrence of these incidents will resurrect Cold War political and military strategies is for now unclear.… continue »
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday rejected an Application for Revision of the court’s judgment of February 26, 2007, that would reopen one of the most important cases about genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war of the early 1990s.… continue »
It is already widely acknowledged that cyberspace has become the fifth domain of warfare, and militaries around the world are training various cyber units, who will be supporting military operations, both by defending cyber infrastructure, and by engaging in cyber-attacks, with the purpose of manipulating, interrupting, and damaging the computer systems and networks of the enemy.… continue »
All parties to the war in Yemen, including the Saudi-led coalition, the Yemeni government, and the Houthi-Saleh forces, are implicated in “widespread violations” of international law, according to a new and damning report from a panel of independent U.N. Security Council-mandated experts.… continue »
This week marked the release of Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law of Cyber Operations, the result of the follow-on project that led to the publication of the Tallinn Manual on the Law of Cyber Warfare in 2013. The culmination of the project will be marked by events in Austin, Washington, The Hague, Tallinn, and Canberra.… continue »
The UK Supreme Court this morning ruled that the government of British Prime Minister Theresa May cannot initiate talks with Brussels about the kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union without a vote from Parliament authorizing such negotiation under Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty. … continue »
