Topics
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Counterterrorism Thinking and “Large-Scale Combat Operations”
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...
Life, Love & Lethality: History and Delegating Death on the Battlefield
In military circles, the 1939 Einstein-Szilard letter to President Roosevelt is a well-known document that changed the course of history. It was instrumental in the establishment of the Manhattan Project in 1945, resulting in the world’s first atomic bomb. What is...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Legal Considerations Before and During LSCOs
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...
Mitt Regan’s Drone Strike – Analyzing the Impacts of Targeted Killing and the CHMR-AP
Mitt Regan, a widely respected Georgetown University Professor of National Security Law, has written a very timely and thought provoking book, Drone Strike—Analyzing the Impacts of Targeted Killing. This book reviews the available empirical evidence on the impact and...
The Place of Judge Advocates on the Next Battlefield
President Biden refers to the current decade as “the decisive decade” in the National Security Strategy (NSS). Consistent with the NSS, the National Defense Strategy (NDS) articulates the Department of Defense strategy to obtain an advantage against its adversaries...
Infant Mortality and the Law of War: Accounting for War’s Impact on the Most Vulnerable
The war in Ukraine is now well over a year old. The conflict painfully reminds us of the brutal human toll war exacts on civilians. Estimates of the numbers of civilians killed and injured vary widely. The UN Office of The High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)...
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...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Protection of the Environment During an Occupation
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...
The Status of Ukraine’s “IT Army” Under the Law of Armed Conflict
Two days after Russia’s renewed invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation announced a call to digital arms on Twitter: We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents. All operational tasks will be given [on this Telegram channel]....
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Environmental Protection in the Context of LSCOs
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 – Introduction
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the ICRC, HLS PILAC, or other workshop participants. Large-scale combat operations (LSCOs) involve widespread, devastating violence, usually on a vast scale. They...
NATO SHAPE Serge Lazareff Prize Awarded to Brigadier General Shane Reeves
On 5 May, the Office of Legal Affairs at NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) presented the Serge Lazareff Prize to Brigadier General Shane Reeves. General Reeves is the 15th Dean of the Academic Board at the United States Military Academy and former...
Future Conflicts, Civilian Harm, and the CHMR-AP – Part II
Editor’s note: The first post in the two-part series illustrated the emerging “information environment” of modern warfare into which the DoD CHMR-AP will be launched. This second post addresses how CHMR-AP-enabled civilian harm mitigation supports U.S. strategic...
Future Conflicts, Civilian Harm, and the CHMR-AP – Part I
As U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has stated, mitigating civilian harm is not only a legal and moral imperative, it is also a strategic imperative. To realize these imperatives, on August 25, 2022, Secretary Austin approved the Civilian Harm Mitigation and...
The Expert Panel’s Review of Amnesty International’s Allegations of Ukrainian IHL Violations
Last week, the New York Times reported that Amnesty International (AI) “sat for months on a report critical of the group after it accused Ukrainian forces of illegally endangering civilians while fighting Russia.” The report in question was prepared by a distinguished...
The Wagner Group’s “No Quarter” Order and International Law
On April 23, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, instructed members of his paramilitary force to “kill everyone on the battlefield.” In a post to a Wagner-affiliated Telegram account, he warned, “We will no longer take any prisoners.” Ironically,...
International Law, Order, and Justice
The Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022, heralded the emergence of an increasingly realist world order. Russia’s open aggression with flagrant violations of fundamental norms and rules is a clear challenge to the liberal world order that has...
Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan: Observations from a Combat Training Center
The August 25, 2022 publication of the Department of Defense Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) generated debate about whether it is capable of being applied by the DoD across the full continuum of conflict. That continuum ranges from counter...
Reflections on the DoD General Counsel’s Cyber Law Address
On Tuesday, the General Counsel of the Department of Defense, the Honorable Caroline Krass, addressed the annual United States Cyber Command Legal Conference. Her speech followed in the footsteps of Hon. Harold Koh’s 2010 presentation to the conference as Department...
Implementing Integrated Deterrence in the Cyber Domain: The Role of Lawyers
Editor's note: Caroline D. Krass, General Counsel of the Department of Defense, delivered the keynote address at the 2023 USCYBERCOM Legal Conference earlier today, Tuesday, April 18. I. Introduction Good morning. I want to thank General Nakasone and Colonel Hayden...
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...
Ukraine Symposium – Accountability for Cyber War Crimes
In our digitally connected and technology-dependent world, cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure such as electric power grids, water treatment facilities, and industrial control systems have far-reaching safety and security consequences. When these attacks are...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – Make War Sharp Again?
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. Francis Lieber...
New Lieber Institute Senior Fellows
We are pleased to announce the addition of three Senior Fellows to the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare. Gary Corn, Laura A. Dickinson, and Helen Durham each bring a wealth of talent and experience across a broad range of subjects. Their expertise extends to...
The Dutch Chora Judgment: Ex-Gratia Payments and Compensation
Recently, a Dutch district court in The Hague delivered its judgment concerning claims arising from a 2007 battle in Chora, Afghanistan. Whereas an earlier post by Marten Zwanenburg reviewed the judgment with a focus on the alleged violations of International...
Are States Aiding and Assisting Ukraine and Russia Using Force?
The provision of military aid and assistance from States supporting Ukraine and Russia has been a salient theme in their international armed conflict following Russia’s renewed invasion in February 2022. As of late March 2023, for instance, over fifty States have...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – Islamic Laws of War
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. Many people...
The Shadow of Success: How International Criminal Law Has Come to Shape the Battlefield
The rise of international criminal law (ICL) and its expansion in the past few decades has been celebrated as one of the greatest achievements of modern international law, advancing justice and the rule of law, deterring atrocities, and protecting victims worldwide....
ICJ Ruling on Iran’s Proxy War: The United States Must Pay
On March 30, the International Court of Justice issued a ruling on financial measures that the United States had adopted against Iranian assets. The case was brought by Iran, seeking to challenge the legality of these financial measures as a breach of the Treaty of...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – The Eastern Native North American “Laws of War”
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. The Clash of...
LTC Alcala Awarded ASIL’s Baxter Prize
The American Society of International Law (ASIL) has awarded the 2023 Richard R. Baxter Military Writing Prize to Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Alcala for his paper "Cultural Evolution: Protecting 'Digital Cultural Property' in Armed Conflict.” The Baxter Prize is awarded...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – East African Laws of War
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. In our chapter...
U.S. Support to the ICC (in AI-Generated Iambic Pentameter)
I never imagined I would submit for publication a poem from Chat-GPT about U.S. policy toward the International Criminal Court (ICC). But that is what I am doing today. The background is as follows. Each day, we hear more about uses of generative artificial...
Dead Bodies of War in Legal-Historical Context
“We have come for the bodies of the slain, wishing to bury them in observance of the universal law ….” Euripides, The Suppliants, ca. 423 BCE[i] Since the early days of the war between Ukraine and Russia, there have been various accounts of what is being done or not...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – Indigenous Australian Laws of War
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. Australia is...
Ukraine Symposium – The Legality of Depleted Uranium Shells and Their Transfer to Ukraine
The decision by the United Kingdom (UK) in March 2023 to transfer depleted uranium tank shells to Ukraine provoked a fierce reaction from senior Russian political and military officials. President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would “respond accordingly, given...
The Law in War: A Concise Overview
When we first plotted our plan to write the 1st edition of this book, our goal was to offer an accessible narrative overview of international humanitarian law for both lawyers and non-lawyers interested in the topic. To that end, the original 2018 edition addressed...
“Strict” versus “Qualified” Neutrality
The support neutral States are providing Russia and Ukraine has ignited a debate over neutrality. It is one of existential magnitude for Ukraine. Indeed, the survival of Kyiv in early 2022 can be attributed in significant part to external support, particularly the...
Ukraine Symposium – A Path Forward for Food Security in Armed Conflict
Climate change, the economic crisis following the Covid-19 pandemic, and armed conflicts throughout the world have aggravated the global food crisis (see e.g., here, p. 6-7 and here). Regarding specifically the latter, in 2018, the UN Security Council issued...
Ukraine Symposium – Russia’s “Re-Education” Camps: Grave Violations Against Children in Armed Conflict
On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation. The warrants allege that Putin...
Ukraine Symposium – Landmines and the War in Ukraine
Human Rights Watch has documented the use of both anti-vehicle and anti-personnel landmines in Ukraine. Following reports that Ukraine is using anti-personnel landmines (APLs) in violation of the Ottawa Convention, the Ukrainian authorities acknowledged this...
Responsible AI Symposium – Prioritizing Humanitarian AI as part of “Responsible AI”
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed at an expert workshop conducted by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy focusing on Responsible AI. For a general introduction to this symposium, see Tobias Vestner’s and Professor Sean...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – Reading the Lieber Code as Strategic Lawfare
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. A book launch...
Ukraine Symposium – “Damn the Torpedoes!”: Naval Mines in the Black Sea
For over a century the immortal battle cry of Rear Admiral Farragut has sounded throughout naval lore – “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead.” As it turns out, what Admiral Farragut was damning are what we would today refer to as naval contact mines. Since that era,...
Ukraine Symposium – The Law of Crowdsourced War: Democratized Supply Chains – Part II
In the first of this two-part post addressing the legal and practical implications of democratized supply chains, I focused on the individual risks that those who engage in these activities incur. I explored whether their actions can amount to direct participation in...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – Dharma and Ancient Indian Military Laws in the Mahābhārata
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. A book launch...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – Introduction
There is a mythology, easily rebuffed, that the laws of war started with the Lieber Code. While General Orders No. 100 guided and shaped the modern law of armed conflict (LOAC) or international humanitarian law (IHL), the regulation and legal mitigation of the horrors...
Balloons are Not Always Joyful: The Legality of Downing the Chinese Spy Balloon
On January 28, 2023, a Chinese high-altitude balloon (HAB) entered U.S. airspace near Alaska and, after transiting Canadian airspace, continued its voyage from the west to the east coast. On February 4, 2023, the United States shot down the HAB over the territorial...
Lieber Studies POW Volume Symposium – Protecting POWs in Contemporary Conflicts
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter of the Lieber Studies volume Prisoners of War in Contemporary Conflict, which was published 3 March 2023. For a general introduction to this volume, see Professor Mike Schmitt and Major Christopher J....
U.S. Evidence Sharing with the ICC
The U.S. Supreme Court often reminds our government that it must speak with one voice in the world. This is no less true within an administration than it is across the federal branches or with respect to the community of States. From 1793 when George Washington...
Ukraine Symposium – Seizure of Russian State Assets: State Immunity and Countermeasures
On 24 February 2023, the United Kingdom (UK) government objected to the Seizure of Russian State Assets and Support for Ukraine Bill in the House of Commons, proposed legislation that would require the government to put measures in place to seize frozen Russian State...
Ukraine Symposium – The Law of Belligerent Occupation
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has raised important and timely issues regarding the application, implementation, and enforcement of the law of armed conflict. Particularly relevant, is the law of occupation. Unfortunately, this discrete subset of the law of armed...
Ukraine Symposium – Reprisals in International Humanitarian Law
The scale and scope of international humanitarian law (IHL) violations by Russian and associated forces during the conflict in Ukraine are staggering. Yet, Russia has justified some of its operations as retaliatory responses to alleged Ukrainian misdeeds. For...
Contextualization of the Principle of Proportionality in IHL: Criteria and Examples
A previous post explored the normative nature of proportionality in international humanitarian law (IHL), both as a principle and a rule. Proportionality is a rule relating to the protection of civilians in the conduct of hostilities (art. 51(5)(b), 57(2)(a)(iii) and...
Unobserved Fires and the Law of Armed Conflict
The United States and Australia have both embraced the concept of “multi-domain strike,” which the United States describes, in a veritable missile salvo of buzzwords, as the “capability to strike in depth with lethal and non-lethal cross-domain effects … to creat[e]...
Lieber Studies POW Volume Symposium – Application of the Third Geneva Convention in Proxy Warfare
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....
The IDF Introduces Artificial Intelligence to the Battlefield – A New Frontier?
New and emerging technologies impact significantly the ways in which military operations are conducted. Advancements have been achieved in the development and deployment of autonomous weapon systems, military use of cyberspace, and more. One emerging field in which...
Ukraine Symposium – The Law of Crowdsourced War: Democratized Supply Chains – Part I
“Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.” General Pershing’s oft cited maxim of warfare is once again proving itself out in Ukraine. Thankfully, from the outset of Russia’s ill-conceived war of aggression, its progress has been hampered by poorly maintained...
Lieber Studies POW Volume Symposium – “Accompanying the Force” in Modern Armed Conflict
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 – Parole: The Past, Present, and Future
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....
Ukraine One Year On – Defying the Odds
On 24 February 2023, one year has passed since Russia commenced its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The past year has been filled with acts of aggression, war crimes, and continued atrocities. International humanitarian law (IHL) is one of the most profound and...
Dimensions of Russian Aggression and the International Legal Order
Russia’s war against Ukraine has many dimensions: conventional, economic, cyber, informational, and cultural. Recent research, prepared by the Economic Security Council of Ukraine in cooperation with the State Service of Special Communication and Information...
Ukraine Symposium – The Wagner Group: Status and Accountability
Since Russia commenced its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Wagner Group has come out of the shadows. Used by the Kremlin as an alternative fighting force since 2014, the private military company (PMC) now operates with a much greater degree of...
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...
Humanitarian Assistance: Between the Law and Reality
The catastrophic earthquakes that razed parts of Türkiye and Syria earlier this month have caused deaths, injuries, and damage of almost incomprehensible proportions. International aid requested by the Turkish government has been forthcoming, although the scale of...
A State’s Legal Duty to Warn its own Civilians on Consequences of Direct Participation in Hostilities
Much has been written – both in the media and on this site – about the innovative and tactically-effective use of a new digital app, ePPO, by Ukrainian civilians in defense against Russia’s unlawful war of aggression. This app is accessible by personal cell phone and...
The Forthcoming ICJ Advisory Opinion on Israel/Palestine and the Doctrine of Illegal Occupation
On January 9th, 2023, the UN General Assembly requested the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to provide an advisory opinion on two questions. The first concerns the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian...
Debate on a Digital Emblem: The Specific Protection of Healthcare Facilities
Recently, debate ramped up around the idea of a digital emblem to signal the legal protection of medical facilities in the cyber domain. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) published an extensive study in which it proposes different solutions to...
Use of Force and UN Mandates to Protect Civilians
The UN’s protection of civilians (PoC) concept remains contested twenty-three years after the first PoC mandate given to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in 1999. The PoC component of a UN peacekeeping mandate can consist of all sorts of measures...
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Prosecuting War Crimes Symposium – Justice for Victims of [Some] War Crimes Act?
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed at a Lieber Institute expert workshop focusing on Prosecuting War Crimes. For a general introduction to this symposium, see Professor Sean Watts and Jennifer Maddocks’s introductory post. Recent years...
Ukraine Symposium – Field-Modified Weapons under the Law of War
Combatants in armed conflict may choose to modify weapons in the field for a variety of reasons. They may modify them to improve their reliability. They may alter them to increase their range or accuracy. Or they may adapt them to novel purposes. During the...
Prosecuting War Crimes Symposium – German Domestic Prosecutorial Experience
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed at a Lieber Institute expert workshop focusing on Prosecuting War Crimes. For a general introduction to this symposium, see Professor Sean Watts and Jennifer Maddocks’s introductory post. The...
Ukraine Symposium – The Legal and Practical Challenges of Surrendering to Drones
As part of the Articles of War “Year Ahead” series published earlier this year, Board of Advisor member Professor Gary Solis predicted that several legal issues pertaining to the law of armed conflict (LOAC) will likely see significant development soon, including...
Prosecuting War Crimes Symposium – Evidentiary Challenges
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed at a Lieber Institute expert workshop focusing on Prosecuting War Crimes. For a general introduction to this symposium, see Professor Sean Watts and Jennifer Maddocks’s introductory post. The Commission...
Prosecuting War Crimes Symposium – Introduction
Last fall, with the generous support of the 15th Dean of the Academic Board, Brigadier General Shane Reeves, the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare at West Point partnered with the U.S. State Department Office of Global Criminal Justice and the United States...
A Digital Red Cross: What Would It Defend Against?
On November 18, 1991, after enduring a three-month artillery assault, the city of Vukovar in Croatia fell to what was then known as the federal Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitary forces. After JNA units took control of a hospital where hundreds of sick...
Ukraine Symposium – A Wagner Group Fighter in Norway
In the early hours of Friday, January 13th, the alarm went off in a military border guard base in northern Norway. Someone had illegally crossed the border with Russia, and Norwegian conscripts were tasked to find the person. The intruder turned out to be a former...
Afterwar: Veterans’ Care as a Law of War Imperative – Part II
In a famous poster from 1917, a woman with a Red Cross armband stands behind a seated man with a bandaged head and closing eyes. She holds him in her arms. “In the Name of Mercy,” the text reads, “Give!” Yet the American Red Cross was more than just a charity seeking...
The Law of Armed Conflict, the Law of Naval Warfare, and a PRC blockade of Taiwan
In discussions of possible Peoples Republic of China (PRC) military courses of action against Taiwan that rise to the level of an armed conflict, the likelihood of a PRC naval and air “blockade” is often considered. The Republic of China (ROC) Foreign Ministry noted...
BUL Event on the Use of Force, Legitimacy, Non-state Actors, and Bilateral Security Agreements
On January 18, at the Brunel University London (BUL) School of Law, the BUL International Law Group, held an event exploring the use of force and international law (the video can be found here). The discussants addressed questions that are sure to be on the minds of...
Ukraine Symposium – The Impact of Sanctions on Humanitarian Aid
The war in Ukraine highlights how humanitarian need and restrictive trade measures typically emerge simultaneously in times of conflict—and how the latter can interfere with the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide principled humanitarian assistance. This...
Afterwar: Veterans’ Care as a Law of War Imperative – Part I
Editors’ Note: This post on veterans’ care as a law of war imperative is published on the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the military draft in the United States. On January 27, 1973, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it would no longer issue draft...
Ukraine Symposium – Ukraine’s “Suicide Drone Boats” and International Law
Editors’ Note: As part of our 2023 Year Ahead series, our Board of Advisors member Prof. Dr. Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg presciently identified legal issues concerning maritime drones as a subject to watch this year. It did not take long for the field to respond. Our...
Ukraine Symposium – What’s in a Name? Getting it Right for the Naval “Drone” Attack on Sevastopol
Editors’ Note: As part of our 2023 Year Ahead series, our Board of Advisors member Prof. Dr. Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg presciently identified legal issues concerning maritime drones as a subject to watch this year. It did not take long for the field to respond. Our...
Ukraine Symposium – UN Peacekeepers and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has been under Russian control since March 2022. The international community has repeatedly called for a resolution to a situation that could result in a nuclear disaster because the plant is regularly damaged by shelling. In...
Year Ahead – U.S. Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response
In August 2022, the U.S. Secretary of Defense released the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) which lays out a series of measures the Department of Defense will implement over the coming years to enhance the services’ efforts to mitigate...
Year Ahead – Compliance Continues to be the Most Under-Addressed Challenge
As 2022 has ended, it is appropriate and necessary to take stock of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) and speculate on its efficacy in 2023 and beyond. 2022 saw many armed conflicts of both international and non-international natures. Conservatively, there were at...
Ukraine Symposium – The “I Want to Live” Project and Technologically-Enabled Surrender
In their ongoing armed conflict, the Russian Federation and Ukraine have engaged in sustained information campaigns using leaflets, social media posts, radio appeals, text messages, and television spots to provoke surrenders. Further leveraging modern communications...
Year Ahead – Emerging Technologies and the Collection of Battlefield Evidence
In a recent series of posts on responsible artificial intelligence (AI), various authors (including Chris Jenks) have discussed the role of “responsibility” in the context of using of AI enabled systems, including weapon systems, on the battlefield. In each of these...
Year Ahead – When You Least Expect It…
Those of us long enough in the tooth to remember Candid Camera will remember this opening to that classic television show. So, what exactly does that have to do with an Articles of War post on the year ahead? In my view, everything, because it reminds us that in the...
Year Ahead – Thinking Back to Think Ahead
Last year, the Lieber Institute and I published a volume on the future law of armed conflict (LOAC) (the volume’s introduction is available here, and a detailed review, thanks to our friends over at Lawfire, is available here). It grew out of our effort to think about...
Year Ahead – The Coming Year’s Law of Armed Conflict Evolution
Predicting near-term Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC)-related changes is a fraught venture. Some events, however, appear sufficiently clear to predict with relative safety. 1. The United Nations General Assembly (not the Security Council) will establish an international...
Year Ahead – The Hurdles to International Regulation of AI Tools
In 2023, non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Stop Killer Robots will continue their calls for a new international legal framework to regulate autonomous weapons systems. Some States and scholars are optimistic about the possibility. These...
Year Ahead – The Legal Status of Unmanned Maritime (Naval) Systems: A Never-Ending Story?
An international workshop held at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., from 20 to 21 March 2012, was to discuss the legal status of unmanned maritime systems (UMS) operated by the regular armed forces.[i] The result was not necessarily conclusive. Since then,...
Year Ahead – Does International Law Still Matter in Ukraine?
Considering Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine and the contemptible torrent of international humanitarian law (IHL) violations by Russian and proxy forces, one could be excused for concluding that the law governing the use of force (jus ad bellum) and IHL don’t...
Year in Review – 2022
2022 has been an unprecedented year for the law of armed conflict (LOAC) and for Articles of War. The full-scale international armed conflict that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since 24 February has spawned multiple LOAC issues. Meanwhile, Russia’s flagrant...
Responsible AI Symposium – Responsible AI and Legal Review of Weapons
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed at an expert workshop conducted by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy focusing on Responsible AI. For a general introduction to this symposium, see Tobias Vestner’s and Professor Sean...
The US Space Force at 3: Growing Dangers for a Growing Branch
On 20 December 2022, the US Space Force (USSF) will celebrate the third anniversary of its creation—an anniversary that comes at the end of a year rife with space-related challenges. The after-effects of Russia’s November 2021 kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) missile...
Responsible AI Symposium – The AI Ethics Principle of Responsibility and LOAC
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed at an expert workshop conducted by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy focusing on Responsible AI. For a general introduction to this symposium, see Tobias Vestner’s and Professor Sean...