At the crossroads of scholarship and practice
The Lieber Institute at West Point facilitates and contributes to the global dialogue on today’s most pressing and complex law of war issues. Through its research, publications, events and education, it strives to advance the understanding and maintain the primacy of law in today’s armed conflicts.
The Lieber Institute seeks to bridge the divide between legal scholarship and battlefield experience in the study of the law. It engages in innovative research and collaboration on multiple topics of legal study including targeting, detention, artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and war crimes accountability.
Researching Cutting-edge Issues.
Promoting Understanding.
Empowering Combat Leaders.
When Cartels Fight Back: El Mencho and the NIAC Question in Mexico
On February 22, 2026, Mexican Army Special Forces launched a pre-dawn raid on a gated residential compound in Tapalpa, a mountainous municipality in the Western state of Jalisco. Their target was Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. “El Mencho,” the elusive founder and...
What Aggregate Civilian-Combatant Ratios Tell Us, And What They Don’t: A Case Study from the Gaza Conflict
Public debate about contemporary armed conflict increasingly relies on aggregate civilian-to-combatant casualty ratios as indicators of legality and moral responsibility. Some use these ratios to argue that a military campaign is either exceptionally restrained or...
The Evolving Architecture of the International Law of Military Operations: Mapping the Future of Legal Research in Armed Conflict
International law governing military operations is undergoing a period of profound transformation. Rapid technological innovation including artificial intelligence (AI), the expansion of conflict into new operational domains such as cyberspace and outer space, the...
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Volume 9
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Volume 7
