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Lieber Studies Attribution of Non-State Actor Conduct Volume – Attribution of Non-State Actor Conduct During Armed Conflict
Editors' note: This post appears as an entry in a series dedicated to Dr Jennifer Maddocks' monograph, Attribution of Non-State Actor Conduct during Armed Conflict, appearing in the Lieber Studies book series with Oxford University Press. Dr Maddocks will participate...
Lieber Studies Attribution of Non-State Actor Conduct Volume – Series Introduction
With this series we are proud to showcase the work of our former colleague Dr. Jennifer Maddocks. While an Assistant Professor with the United States Military Academy’s Department of Law and Philosophy, she completed work on her monograph, Attribution of Non-State...
Maritime Blockade and its Starvation Effect: A Key Material Element in the Crime of Genocide?
In modern terms, a maritime blockade can be defined as “a belligerent operation intended to prevent vessel traffic from all States from entering or leaving specified coastal areas that are under the sovereignty, occupation, or control of an enemy. Such areas may...
State-Criminal Enterprise
Criminal enterprises, once primarily associated with localized crime, are increasingly becoming a destabilizing force beyond national borders. A 2006 report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime details how organized criminal groups have...
Federated Front: AI-Assisted Targeting, the Rendulic Rule, and Multi-Domain Operations
Consider the following scenario in the not-so-distant future: the Suwałki Gap, Autumn, 203X. In a desperate test of the North Atlantic Treaty’s Article V, mechanized forces of the Russian 11th Army Corps guarded by pervasive electronic warfare (EW) measures probe the...
Rethinking Proportionality in the Cloud Age: Reverberating Effects of Attacks on Data Centers
Few issues have attracted more attention in contemporary targeting law than reverberating effects from attacks. Much discussion has focused on attacks against traditional critical infrastructure—particularly on electrical power systems—where civilian harm may extend...
Compliance by Design V: LOAC in the Israeli Defense Industry
Editors’ note: This is the tenth post in a series dedicated to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and the questions of human oversight and legal accountability under international humanitarian law. Previous posts have focused on LAWS, China, Russia, the United...
How Should Military AI Be Evaluated Under IHL?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an integral part of military operations. AI-enabled decision-support systems (AI-DSS) support intelligence analysis, target verification, operational planning, and the execution of military operations by collecting,...
CyCon 2026 Series – CyCon Comes of (AI) Age
Editors’ note: This post introduces a series derived from panels and discussions that took place in 2026 at the 18th annual International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon) event hosted by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia....
CyCon 2026 Series – Cyber Operations in the Multidomain Battlespace: A Legal View from the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
Editors’ note: This post introduces a series derived from panels and discussions that took place in 2026 at the 18th annual International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon) event hosted by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia....
Identifying NIAC Series – Conclusion
Editors’ note: This post appears as a conclusion for the series examining Dr Nathan Derejko’s book, Identifying Non-International Armed Conflict published by Cambridge University Press. The series features alternating posts with our friends at Armed Groups and...
Identifying NIAC Series – When NIACs End: Support for Derejko’s Functional Approach
The following post by Martha Bradley focuses on the end of non-international armed conflicts (NIACs). The post was published on Armed Groups and International Law as part of the joint Articles of War and AGIL Identifying NIAC Series. RELATED POSTS Introduction:...
CyCon 2026 Series – Governing Responsible Military AI Through Defense Procurement
Editors’ note: This post introduces a series derived from panels and discussions that took place in 2026 at the 18th annual International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon) event hosted by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia....
CyCon 2026 Series – New Technologies, Armed Conflict, and International Humanitarian Law
Editors’ note: This post introduces a series derived from panels and discussions that took place in 2026 at the 18th annual International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon) event hosted by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia....
Identifying NIAC Series – The Geography of War and the Nature of IHL
Editors’ note: This post appears as an entry in a series examining Dr Nathan Derejko’s book, Identifying Non-International Armed Conflict published by Cambridge University Press. The series features alternating posts with our friends at Armed Groups and International...
Identifying NIAC Series – The IHL Dramatis Personae: Black & White or Shades of Grey?
The following post by Katharine Fortin focuses on the personal scope of non-international armed conflicts (NIACs). The post was published on Armed Groups and International Law as part of the joint Articles of War and AGIL Identifying NIAC Series.RELATED POSTS...
From War Booty to War Learning: The Legal Status of Captured Military Artificial Intelligence
The law of armed conflict has long recognised that military victory carries with it certain legal consequences beyond the battlefield. Among them is the ability to capture and exploit enemy military property. Whether described as “war booty” or, as some modern...
Wildberries and the Unit of Analysis in Targeting Law
Since the middle of July 2026, Ukrainian long-range drones have struck more than twenty warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer. By August 5, Deutsche Welle estimated the company’s losses at between 1.2 and 1.5 million square meters of...
Identifying NIAC Series – Classifying Battlefield Actors in NIAC: Another View on an Old Conundrum
Editors’ note: This post appears as an entry in a series examining Dr Nathan Derejko’s book, Identifying Non-International Armed Conflict published by Cambridge University Press. The series features alternating posts with our friends at Armed Groups and International...
Target Selection by Machines: The Duty to Verify and the GGE Rolling Text
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s article “Target Selection by Autonomous Weapons Systems: What Does the Duty of Target Verification Require?,” published as an Exeter Centre for International Law Working Paper. On August 31, the Group of Governmental...
Identifying NIAC Series – Aggregating Criminal Violence: Challenges to NIAC-Classification
Editors’ note: This post appears as an entry in a series examining Dr Nathan Derejko’s book, Identifying Non-International Armed Conflict published by Cambridge University Press. The series features alternating posts with our friends at Armed Groups and International...
Identifying NIAC Series – The Concept of Non-International Armed Conflict – Towards a singular definition of NIACs?
The following post by Gloria Gaggioli focuses on the question of a single definition of NIACs (as opposed to the separation between CA3 NIACs and APII NIACs). The post was published on Armed Groups and International Law as part of the joint Articles of War and AGIL...
Identifying NIAC Series – Introduction: From Armed Violence to Armed Conflict
Having spent the better part of a decade researching, writing, thinking, and teaching non-international armed conflict (NIAC), I am delighted to share the culmination of that work: my recent Cambridge University Press monograph, Identifying Non-International Armed...
Using (and Abusing) Polling: The Martens Clause and Autonomous Weapons
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s recent article, “Abhorrence and Autonomy: On the Place of Public Attitudes in the Debate on Militarised Artificial Intelligence” published in Volume 39 of Philosophy & Technology. Since debates around Autonomous...
Killings of Prisoners of War and Refusal of Quarter – Present and Past
Modern international humanitarian law (IHL) protects prisoners against attack or mistreatment from the moment they surrender or do something akin to surrender. Relevant provisions include Articles 40 and 41 of Additional Protocol I of 1977 (AP I). Regarding prescribed...
Medical Neutrality as a Contested Legal Concept in the 1899-1902 South African War
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author's recently published article "Neutrality as a Contested Concept in International Humanitarian Law: Red Cross Men in the South African War, 1899–1902" in volume 14 of Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights,...
Beyond Nuclear: Does Russia’s Reported Anti-Starlink Weapon Breach the Outer Space Treaty?
In Late December 2025, intelligence services reported suspicion that Russia is developing a new anti-satellite weapon to target mass-constellations, such as SpaceX. Unlike traditional anti-satellite weapons that destroy a single target, the reported ability would...
Air Warfare and International Humanitarian Law
In 1949, the U.S. Army’s International Law Branch Chief, Major William G. Downey, provided remarks (in his personal capacity) to the American Society of International Law. He asserted, The person who first drafts an acceptable code of rules for use in aerial warfare...
When the Defender Is the Attacker and Does It Matter?
I was delighted to learn that Dr Jonathan Kwik has received funding for what promises to be a most important research project. Jonathan is fast developing a well-earned reputation as a thought-leader in complex areas associated with emerging technologies; for the...
Beyond Human-in-the-Loop: Battlefield Maps for Drone Autonomy
The requirement that a human approve every lethal engagement, known as human-in-the-loop (HITL), is effectively dead, a casualty of the war in Ukraine. The requirement that commanders bear responsibility for the operations under their command, however, survives. The...
International Law, the Civil Law Tradition, and Sources of Law – Part II
Editors’ note: This is the second in a two-part post illustrating the impact of the civil law tradition on the formation of international law including the law of war, specifically the sources of international law. This entry will focus on general principles of law,...
The “Aggregated” Accumulation of Events Doctrine: Three Operational Hypotheticals
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s forthcoming contribution to “What if in 2031” in a fall/winter publication at the NATO Defence College (Rome). The post’s hyperlinks connect readers to actual events that are analogous to those presented in its...
Surrender as a Weapon: Operational Paralysis and the Law of War
In the opening days of the Operation Desert Storm ground campaign, Iraqi Soldiers surrendered by the tens of thousands. They surrendered to armor, to infantry, and in one famous instance, to a remotely piloted drone hovering overhead. On one hand, the Iraqi prisoners...
Compliance by Design IV: LOAC in the European Defense Industry
Editors’ note: This is the ninth post in a series dedicated to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and the questions of human oversight and legal accountability under international humanitarian law. Previous posts have focused on LAWS, China, Russia, the United...
International Law, the Civil Law Tradition, and Sources of Law – Part I
Editors’ note: This is the first in a two-part post illustrating the impact of the civil law tradition on the formation of international law, specifically the sources of international law. This entry will focus on treaties and custom as sources of law, including in...
Lieber Studies Indo-Pacific Volume – Prisoners of War and a Taiwan Conflict
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s chapter in Armed Conflict and International Law in the Indo-Pacific Region (Douglas Guilfoyle & Jennifer Maddocks eds. 2026), the thirteenth volume of the Lieber Studies Series published with Oxford University...
Where the Environment Sits: Proportionality and Strikes on Russian Oil Infrastructure
Through the spring and summer of 2026, Ukraine turned its long-range drone fleet into a systematic weapon against Russia’s refining sector. By late June, drones had struck eight of Russia’s ten largest refineries by processing capacity. Independent analysts placed...
Self-Defence, the Principle of Due Diligence, and the Law of Neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Russia’s (unlawful) aggression against Ukraine, and the international armed conflict that it has triggered, raises many novel questions concerning the interpretation and application of international law. In this post, I want to focus on the law of self-defence as...
Lieber Studies Indo-Pacific Volume – A Tale of Tenacity, Tensions, and Ambiguity: Mutual Defense Treaties and Defense Groupings in the Indo-Pacific
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s chapter in Armed Conflict and International Law in the Indo-Pacific Region (Douglas Guilfoyle & Jennifer Maddocks eds. 2026), the thirteenth volume of the Lieber Studies Series published with Oxford University...
Whose Decision Was It? Drone Swarms and the Accountability Gap in Ukraine
On June 1, 2025, Ukraine launched roughly 100 small drones at Russian airbases spread across several time zones. The platforms had been smuggled close to their targets in wooden containers, then released to strike together. The operation, known as Operation Spider's...
Lieber Studies Indo-Pacific Volume – LOAC and Information Warfare in the Indo-Pacific
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s chapter in Armed Conflict and International Law in the Indo-Pacific Region (Douglas Guilfoyle & Jennifer Maddocks eds. 2026), the thirteenth volume of the Lieber Studies Series published with Oxford University...
Jus ad Bellum and Jus in Bello Targeting
There is a growing tendency to devise a double targeting criterion for attacks: one for jus ad bellum (JAB); and one for jus in bello (JIB), and to require that the conditions for each are met so that an attack or other belligerent action with similar results can be...
Lieber Studies Indo-Pacific Volume – Interpretative Choice and Risk in Indo-Pacific Air Domain Challenges
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s chapter in Armed Conflict and International Law in the Indo-Pacific Region (Douglas Guilfoyle & Jennifer Maddocks eds. 2026), the thirteenth volume of the Lieber Studies Series published with Oxford University...
Lieber Studies Armed Conflict in the Indo-Pacific Region Volume Series – Introduction
In recent years, the Indo-Pacific has emerged as a principal arena of strategic competition. The region has witnessed intensified military modernization and rivalry among major powers, often involving hybrid tactics, maritime grey zone operations, and influence...
Dual-Purpose Objects
Editors’ note: This post is based on the authors’ recently published article “On the Purpose Limb of the Military Objective Test under the Law of Targeting” published in volume 64 of Military Law and Law of War Review. The concept of dual-use objects is misleading. It...
The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and Cyber Operations – Part II: Jus in Bello
Part I of this two-post series analyzed how the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) Climate Change advisory opinion might reshape State obligations in peacetime and the period leading up to conflict, particularly through an expanded due diligence framework that...
War Booty in the Modern Law of Armed Conflict
There is an often unnoticed lexical (and, by extension, substantive) controversy over the survival of war booty under the modern law of armed conflict. Most authors concede that this long-standing institution of the law of war has survived, albeit being severely...
Ukraine’s Attacks on Oil Infrastructure and the “War-Sustaining” Debate
On 16 June, Ukraine launched a drone strike on Russia’s Gazprom Neft Moscow Refinery, an oil processing facility that sources a third of the fuel supply for the Russian capital and its surrounding region. Two days later, Ukraine struck the refinery again with one of...
The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and Cyber Operations – Part I: General International Law Considerations
In July 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its much-anticipated Climate Change advisory opinion. The opinion is worth reviewing for many reasons and raises a host of legal questions that have been addressed in various other fora. As an advisory...
From Nuremberg to Lafarge: Corporate War Crimes by Another Name?
The prosecution of the global corporation Lafarge in the United States and, more recently, in France may signal a major shift in wartime corporate accountability. Rather than relying on traditional war crimes tribunals, prosecutors are increasingly using domestic...
War Crimes in History
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s article-length work, “A History of the Law of War Crimes” appearing in International Review of the Red Cross. International law recognizes three categories of core crimes: genocide; crimes against humanity; and war...
Choice of Law in the Laws of War
In private international law, choice of law is a critical question concerned with identifying which legal system governs a dispute involving cross-border elements. A set of principles developed to address such questions does not resolve the dispute itself but rather...
Compliance by Design III: LOAC in China’s Autonomous Weapons Development
Editors’ note: This is the eight post in a series dedicated to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and the questions of human oversight and legal accountability under international humanitarian law. Previous posts have focused on LAWS, China, Russia, the United...
Warnings in Contemporary Conflict: Protective Measure or Source of Illegality?
Since the beginning of March 2026, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have issued a number of evacuation orders in southern Lebanon. These orders have directed the inhabitants of villages and towns in southern Lebanon to leave their homes and move north. Others...
Compliance by Design II: LOAC in U.S. Software Provided for Autonomous Combat Systems
Editors’ note: This is the seventh post in a series dedicated to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and the questions of human oversight and legal accountability under international humanitarian law. Previous posts have focused on LAWS, China, Russia, the United...
Farewell to MAJ Evin Stovall
This week Articles of War and the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare bid farewell to Major Evin Stovall. For two years, Evin served as Senior Editor at Articles of War where, behind the scenes for our readers but prominently for us, he led our administrative and...
The Notions of “Non-Belligerent” and “Other States not Parties to the Conflict” in the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I
The Geneva Conventions (GCs) and Additional Protocol I (AP I) include obligations for neutral States. However, the wording is not orthodox. In GC III, the expression “non-belligerent” is found twice: once in Article 4(B)2; and again in Article 122. In AP I, reference...
Jamming Enemy Weapon Systems and the Law of Targeting
Throughout history, superior weaponry and tactics have always provided a decisive edge in warfare, driving continuous cycles of measures and countermeasures among adversaries. Today’s battlefields are no exception. In the Russo-Ukrainian war and the armed conflict...
Compliance by Design I: LOAC in U.S. Autonomous Combat Platforms
Editors’ note: This is the sixth post in a series dedicated to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and the questions of human oversight and legal accountability under international humanitarian law. Previous posts have focused on LAWS, China, Russia, the United...
AI-on-AI Perfidy and the Law of Armed Conflict
Picture the following scenario: a forward-deployed artificial intelligence (AI) enabled surveillance platform detects a convoy moving along a contested highway at dusk. Its classification system flags the convoy as medical; the vehicles emit recognised humanitarian...
Humanitarian Assistance in International Law and the Distinction Between Preventive Assistance and Emergency Relief in Armed Conflict
Editors’ note: This post highlights work from the author’s forthcoming book, Humanitarian Assistance in International Law, published with Oxford University Press. Humanitarian assistance refers to essential goods and services provided in accordance with the core...
Prosecuting Wartime Sexual Torture: The Uneven Trajectory of International Jurisprudence
Sexual violence in armed conflict is rarely the product of a few undisciplined soldiers. In today’s major wars, it is frequently deployed as a deliberate method of domination, punishment, and control. Rape, genital mutilation and electrocution, forced nudity, and...
AI, the Box, and the Black
It was my honour and privilege to be invited to attend, and participate in a panel at, the U.S. Cyber Command Legal Conference, “Innovation to Impact” from 28 to 30 April 2026. The Conference addressed, inter alia, issues arising from the employment of artificial...
Are Evacuation Orders Unlawful Under International Law? A Case Study of Southern Lebanon
Recent commentaries have characterized evacuation orders in contemporary armed conflicts, including those of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in southern Lebanon, as forcible transfer or inherently coercive. This position is reflected in statements by major human...
From Imagery to Targeting: Commercial Satellite Support in War
Commercial Earth Observation (EO) and geospatial intelligence firms now provide near-real-time imagery and analysis during active hostilities. Existing international humanitarian law (IHL) applies to these situations, but its application to commercial support embedded...
Legal Interoperability Lessons from the Red Sea
The landscape of 21st century warfare is rapidly changing. After 20 years of fighting terrorism by non-State actors, great power competition and hybrid threats now dominate the security landscape, along with a return to large-scale kinetic war in Europe and the Middle...
The Sack of Cities: Laws of War and Evolving Attitudes in Historical Perspective
Throughout most of Western history, stretching back to the Homeric tradition of Troy, the right to sack a besieged city that refused to surrender was part and parcel of the customary laws of siege warfare. Under this law of war, cities and towns continued to be sacked...
Statehood in Conflict Classification: Revisiting Recognition in Contemporary IHL
After more than a decade since the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo and the independence and admission of South Sudan into the United Nations, there has been another rise in the practice of recognition of statehood, chiefly in response to the Gaza War,...
Dual-Use Objects and Dual-Purpose Attacks
Editors’ note: This post highlights work in the author’s recent chapter, “Objective and Subjective Tests for Determining Violations of the Law of Targeting: The Unreasonable Commander and the Guilty Mind,” appearing in Volume 27 of the Yearbook of International...
Haiti’s Gang Violence and the Armed Conflict Threshold: An IHL Analysis
Haiti’s armed violence and humanitarian crisis remain acute. Armed gangs control significant territory, reportedly perpetrating killings, sexual violence, and child exploitation. In 2025 alone, more than 8,000 people were killed, 1.4 million displaced, and over half...
Warification and the Illusion of Precision: AI, Targeting, and Increasing Civilian Harm
Editors’ note: This post features analysis included in the authors’ recently published article, “The Warification of International Humanitarian Law and the Artifice of Artificial Intelligence in Decision-Support Systems: Restoring Balance through Legitimacy of...
Unity in Principle, Variation in Practice: European Approaches to Meaningful Human Control for LAWS
Editors' note: This is the fifth post in a series dedicated to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and the questions of human oversight and legal accountability under international humanitarian law. Previous posts have focused on LAWS, China, Russia, and the U.S....
Targeting in the Swiss Army
Many members of the press and media are generally uninformed, dismissive, and even sneer at matters related to international humanitarian law (IHL). These conditions apply equally with respect to most issues of public international law. Reality concerning the weight...
Revisiting Application of Jus ad Bellum during an Ongoing International Armed Conflict
The relationship between the existence of an international armed conflict (IAC) and the legality of the use of force under the jus ad bellum (JAB) remains conceptually distinct but practically intertwined. Recent conflicts have brought the practical issues arising...
Human Responsibility Retained: U.S. Positions on Judgment and Oversight for LAWS
Editors’ note: This is the fourth post in a series dedicated to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and the questions of human oversight and legal accountability under international humanitarian law. Previous posts have focused on LAWS, China, and Russia. The...
Patriotic War: Total Defence, Resistance, and Additional Protocol I
Russia’s clear aggression towards Ukraine and its thinly veiled “hybrid war” against its other European neighbours has rightly caused alarm amongst these threatened States. European countries such as the Scandinavian and Baltic States, are adjusting “their national...
Modern Attack Balloons and the 1907 Hague Balloons Declaration
In the days leading up to the 1812 Battle of Borodino, Russia devised a plan to float a large shark-shaped hot air balloon over French forces to drop explosives. The balloon could not be made ready in time for the battle. When later ready, it collapsed as it left its...
Nuclear Weapons Part IV – A Postscript
Editors’ note: This is the fourth of a four-part post on legal considerations applicable to nuclear weapons. The first three posts in this series were completed on February 26, 2026, approximately 48 hours before the outbreak of the most recent period of hostilities...
A Matter of Principle(s)? Acquiescence in International Humanitarian Law
Like hidden bunkers blended in the landscape, the operation of general principles of law in international humanitarian law (IHL) is not conspicuous at first glance. When referring to general principles (International Court of Justice (ICJ) Statute, art. 38(1)(c)) in...
Guilty Unless Proven Innocent: A Critique of Ali Kushayb Judgment
In its recent judgment, the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Ali Kushayb of multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity. A Janjaweed militia leader who operated in Darfur in 2003–2004, Ali Kushayb routinely implemented Sudanese government’s military...
ILC Draft Articles on Immunity of State Officials: Codification or Progressive Development?
The International Law Commission (ILC) has recently concluded its second reading of the Draft Articles on Immunity of State Officials from Foreign Criminal Jurisdiction. Draft Article 7 has received significant attention, as it addresses the controversial question of...
Propaganda in Armed Conflict: Addressing Impact Through Upholding Legal Limits
Editors' note: The following post draws upon the article “Propaganda and Armed Conflict – Analysing the Legal Framework Through the Ongoing Conflict Between Ukraine and Russia” published by the author in Juridisk Publikation No. 1, 2023, 52-74. International...
Built Without a Battlefield: Challenges of a Cold Case War Crimes Prosecution
Australian authorities recently arrested Ben Roberts-Smith for war crimes including multiple unlawful killings of prisoners and non-combatants. Roberts-Smith, long regarded as one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers and a national celebrity, was previously awarded...
Nuclear Weapons Part III – What Is To Be Done?
Editors’ note: This is the third of a four-part post on legal considerations applicable to nuclear weapons. If the prospects for significant nuclear disarmament in 2026 or indeed in the foreseeable future do not appear to be particularly rosy, can anything be done to...
No New Rules Needed: Russia’s Minimalist Vision of Human Oversight for LAWS
Editors' note: This is the third post in a series dedicated to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and the questions of human oversight and legal accountability under international humanitarian law. Previous posts have focused on LAWS and China. With the...
The Tin Can Ruse: Lawful Deception or Prohibited Treachery?
The law of armed conflict has always drawn an uncomfortable line between cunning and criminality. Commanders who deceive the enemy are celebrated; those who betray a protected confidence face prosecution. The difference, as modern codification encodes it, turns on a...
Nuclear Weapons Part II – Can an Arms Race Be Stopped?
Editors’ note: This is the second of a four-part post on legal considerations applicable to nuclear weapons. In the first part of this post, the fundamental division of opinion between the States that possess nuclear weapons and those that consider such weapons to be...
Through the Looking Glass, Again: The Caroline Standard and a General Framework for Necessity-Based Self-Defense
“Why, it's a Looking-glass book, of course! And if I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again.” — Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1897) On January 3, 2020, the United States killed Iranian Major General Qassim Soleimani near Baghdad...
Fighting at Machine Speed: AI and U.S. Army Counterfire Under the Law of War – Part II
Part I of this post explained the growing relevance of counterfire operations, challenges that accompany carrying them out, and potential contributions of artificial intelligence (AI) to mitigating those challenges. Using the Department of Defense (DoD) Law of War...
Fighting at Machine Speed: AI and U.S. Army Counterfire Under the Law of War – Part I
A strategic shift in national security priorities from counterinsurgency operations to great-power competition and conflict has exposed significant technological and capability gaps in the U.S. military. Among these are lack of guaranteed air superiority and peer...
Ukraine’s Suspension of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention
On July 17, 2025, Ukraine suspended operation of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (Oslo-Ottawa Convention) and notified other State Parties through the UN Secretary General, the treaty’s designated depositary. The reason for the suspension can be understood...
Challenging Common Assumptions About Civilian Protection in Large-Scale Combat Operations
Preparations for large-scale combat operations (LSCOs) by the U.S. military and other NATO militaries have led to a debate—no doubt familiar to Articles of War readers—about whether, or to what extent, the conduct of such operations requires modifying the prevailing...
Nuclear Weapons Part I – Opposing Perspectives
Editors’ note: This is the first of a four-part post on legal considerations applicable to nuclear weapons. This post will explore the fundamental differences of view on nuclear weapons and their implications. But before turning to those disputes, it is perhaps a good...
Human Oversight with Chinese Characteristics: Lethal Autonomous Weapons in the CCW GGE
Editors' note: This is the second post in a series dedicated to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and the questions of human oversight and legal accountability under international humanitarian law. Previous post focused on LAWS. The rapid rise of AI in warfare...
Putting the Canadian in IHL: The Canadian Handbook on International Humanitarian Law
The International Committee of the Red Cross observes that “[t]he rules of war are universal.” Few would dispute that as a general statement, particularly considering the universal ratification of the Geneva Conventions. However, as we move from general propositions...
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...
Armenia’s Military Procurement from India and Article 36 of the Additional Protocol I
Armenia is rearming. Following the catastrophic losses of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War and the complete collapse of Russian reliability as a security guarantor, Yerevan has undertaken one of the most consequential military modernization programs in its...
The Regulation of Levées en Masse: Extending Participation to Diaspora Populations
The levée en masse (i.e., mass uprising) is a relatively rare form of conflict participation recognised by international humanitarian law (IHL). It was last expressed in treaty form in Geneva Convention III (GC III), which extends prisoner of war (POW) status, and...
