Detention
Reflections on RUSI’s Tactical Lessons from IDF Operations in Gaza, 2023
In July, Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds published a paper entitled “Tactical Lessons from Israel Defense Forces Operations in Gaza, 2023” on behalf of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Founded in 1831, RUSI is the world’s oldest and the UK’s leading defense...
Lieber Studies Big Data Volume – Big Data and Armed Conflict – Legal Issues Above and Below the Armed Conflict Threshold
Editor’s note: This is the first post in a symposium addressing themes from a new book entitled Big Data and Armed Conflict: Legal Issues Above and Below the Armed Conflict Threshold, the ninth in the Lieber Institute’s Lieber Studies series with Oxford University...
Prisoner of War Status and Nationals of the Detaining Power
As preparations for Ukraine’s spring 2023 offensive were underway, reports of Russian dissidents conducting cross-border raids from Ukraine into Russia began to surface. The groups were identified as the Liberty of Russia Legion (sometimes referred to as the Freedom...
Al Hassan Symposium – Understanding Rebel (Dis)Order in Al Hassan
Editor’s note: This post is part of a joint symposium hosted by the Armed Groups and International Law and Articles of War blogs. This symposium addresses the pending ICC Al Hassan judgment. Katharine Fortin, Sean Watts, and Diletta Marchesi’s introductory post is...
Sabotage in Law: Meaning and Misunderstandings
On May 3, 2023, Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to “assassinate” President Vladimir Putin by launching two armed drones at the Kremlin in Moscow. Russia’s press service categorized the incident as a “planned terrorist attack,” and President Putin blamed Western...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Detention Operations in LSCOs: a U.S. Military Perspective
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed during an expert workshop that the Lieber Institute co-convened alongside Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross, focusing...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Detention in Non-International Armed Conflict
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed during an expert workshop that the Lieber Institute co-convened alongside Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross, focusing...
Rebellious Detention: Reflections on the ICRC Study on Detention by Non-State Armed Groups
Editor's note: We are delighted to publish this post on the subject of armed groups by Dr. Ezequiel Heffes. In addition to being a valued contributor to Articles of War, Dr. Heffes is an Editor of the blog Armed Groups and International Law, where readers can find...
Lieber Studies POW Volume Symposium – Military Assimilation and the Third Geneva Convention
Editor's note: The following post highlights a chapter of the Lieber Studies volume Prisoners of War in Contemporary Conflict, which will be published 3 March 2023. For a general introduction to this volume, see Professor Mike Schmitt and Major Christopher J....
Lieber Studies POW Volume Symposium – Prisoners of War in Contemporary Conflict
Following the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) launch of its updated Commentary on the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, West Point’s Lieber Institute on Law and Warfare intended to convene an expert-driven workshop...
The Syrian Democratic Forces, Detained Foreign Fighters, and International Security Vulnerabilities
Three-and-a-half years since the United States, its coalition partners, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) overpowered the last redoubt of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), nearly 10,000 fighters remain in SDF custody in northeast Syria. These include...
Ukraine Symposium – Putting “Overall Control” to the Test of the Third Geneva Convention
Detention is a common feature of both international and non-international armed conflicts (IAC and NIAC). Despite the increasing convergence in the regulation of the two types of conflicts as a matter of customary law, the rules on detention remain different. The...
Status of Foreign Fighters in the Ukrainian Legion
Among other new resistance groups, Ukraine has formed an International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine (UKR Legion). There are reports that its members come from all over the world, including Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European...
Prisoners of War in Occupied Territory
It seems increasingly likely that the international armed conflict raging in Ukraine will devolve into a partial Russian occupation of large portions of Ukrainian territory. President Putin may very well declare annexation—or reincorporation—of that territory into...
Legal Status of Ukraine’s Resistance Forces
In the lead up to Russia’s invasion, Ukraine prepared to defend its territory by, among other things, training its citizens to serve as a “resistance in waiting.” The extent to which these resistance forces have engaged Russian invaders to date remains unclear. What...
Afghanistan 2021: Reflections from the Stockton Center for International Law’s Workshop
Despite over twenty years of legal analysis, many issues regarding the Afghanistan conflict remain unsettled. At a recent Stockton Center for International Law law of armed conflict (LOAC) workshop, an experienced and diverse group of scholars and practitioners...
Counterterrorism, Investigative Detention, and the New Global Security Environment
The images of Afghan civilians clinging to crowded military planes departing Afghanistan as the Taliban reclaimed Kabul are the iconic indicia of a tectonic shift in the global security environment. This shift, to be sure, did not begin with the U.S. retrograde from...
Battlefield Detention, Counterterrorism, and Future Conflicts
Editor’s note: The following post is part of the Articles of War Symposium on Beth Van Schaack’s book, Imagining Justice for Syria. The symposium offers a platform for the contributing experts to carry the conversation on justice and accountability in Syria forward....
The Updated GCIII Commentary: A Flawed Methodology?
In June of 2020, as part of its ongoing multi-year effort, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) launched its updated Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention of 1949. The Commentary analyzes how practice in the application and interpretation of...
Interpretation in the Updated GCIII Commentary
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Updated Commentary to the Third Geneva Convention is a remarkable feat of scholarship worthy of serious academic attention. It leaves almost no interpretive stone unturned in its effort to identify the humanitarian...
Will Autonomy in U.S. Military Operations Centralize Legal Decision-making?
The growth of machine learning tools in military operations raises new questions about where the most critical decision points are located. Are the most important political, operational, and legal decisions made out in the field, where the tools are used, or in...
