Conflict Types
Al Hassan Symposium – Towards the Acceptance of the Aggregated Violence Approach?
Editors’ note: This post is part of a joint symposium hosted by the Armed Groups and International Law and Articles of War blogs. The symposium addresses the ICC’s judgment in the Al Hassan case. The introductory post is available here. On June 26, 2024, Trial Chamber...
Criminal Groups as Parties to Non-International Armed Conflicts: The Standard of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador
Editors’ note: This post builds upon the authors’ article-length work, “Is Ecuador Facing a Non-International Armed Conflict Against Organized Crime Groups? Reality, Inconsistencies and Jurisprudential Developments” appearing in the International Review of the Red...
Taiwan Statehood (or not) and its Ramification for Armed Conflict
As outlined in a previous Articles of War post, the recent 2024 Lieber Workshop focused on international law and the future of multi-domain operations in the Indo-Pacific. One of the workshop’s panels featured rich discussions on the military and political situation...
Iran as a Party to an International Armed Conflict with Israel
A recent Articles of War post argues that Iran’s “substantial involvement” in Hezbollah’s activities is sufficient to render it responsible for the latter’s armed attacks, thus triggering Israel’s right to use self-defense directly against Iran. This is a view I also...
Ukraine Symposium – North Korea’s Entry into International Armed Conflict
In recent months, the world has observed the methodical introduction of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) into the ongoing Russia-Ukraine international armed conflict (IAC). On June 19, 2024, President Vladimir Putin met with North Korean leader, Kim...
The ICC Palestine Case in the Aftermath of the Arrest Warrants Decisions – Part Two
On November 21, 2024, the Pre-trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued four decisions dealing with various legal matters arising out of the Prosecutor’s May 20 request to issue arrest warrants in connection with the war in Gaza. In Part One of...
Attacking a Pipeline: Legal Issues for Consideration
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 are pipelines constructed by a Russian State-controlled company called Gazprom to transport 110 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year from the Russian Federation under the Baltic Sea to Germany. Gazprom has a 51 percent...
United States v. Najibullah Symposium – Taliban Combatant Immunity in Non-International Armed Conflict
Editors' note: This post is part of a two-post symposium on a pretrial hearing in the case United States v. Najibullah. An introductory post by Professor Sean Watts provides background on the case and the hearing. The purpose of the law of war hearing in United States...
United States v. Najibullah Symposium – Introduction
Almost as soon as hostilities between the United States and the Taliban and al Qaeda groups in Afghanistan began in 2001, important law of war questions emerged. In particular, early stages of the conflict provoked debate concerning its legal character. The question...
Israel-Hamas 2024 Symposium – Israel’s Jus ad Bellum and LOAC Obligations and the Evolving Nature of the Conflict
According to the New York Times, some senior American officials have concluded Israel has achieved all it can militarily in the Gaza Strip. It reports that “a growing number of national security officials” believe that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) will never be able...
Targeting Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr
On Wednesday morning, Israel killed the Chief of Hamas’s Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, while he was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. To do so, it reportedly used a bomb that had been smuggled two months earlier into the...
Space Privateers or Space Pirates? Armed Conflict, Outer Space, and the Attribution of Non-State Activities
Famously, George Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France at the end of the First World War, quipped that “generals always prepare to fight the last war, especially if they won it.” Such flaws of perspicacity, of course, are not limited to generals. After all, as Nobel...
