Targeting
Ukraine Symposium – Targeting Leadership
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently spoke at length in Time magazine about assassination attempts against him. He indicated that Russian paratroopers had approached his location immediately after the invasion and that he heard nearby firefights from his...
Ukraine Symposium – Data-Rich Battlefields and the Future LOAC
Alongside the physical conflict in Ukraine, the parties are waging a ruthless data war. Russia continues to deploy its formidable "information war machine" to "confuse and disable" while Ukraine and non-State actors such as news organizations, think tanks, and NGOs...
Urban Siege Warfare: A Workshop Report
[Editor's note: The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the ICRC, PILAC, or other participants.] Siege is a well-established practice in warfare. It seeks to compel surrender, reduce adversary resistance, or lay the...
“Weaponizing” Sexual Violence In War – An IHL Problem
As the war in Ukraine approaches the six-month mark, reports of sexual violence against women and girls, and also men and boys, mount almost daily. In an extraordinary step, trials of Russian soldiers accused of rape have already begun in Ukraine, some of them in...
The al-Zawahiri Strike and the Law of Armed Conflict
Just after daybreak on July 31, the United States killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s former deputy and the current leader of al-Qaeda. Two Hellfire missiles struck him on the balcony of his home in Kabul. Nearby residents reported a loud blast along with an...
Can Starlink Satellites Be Lawfully Targeted?
In an earlier post, I discussed the special attribution regime in Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty (OST) and the risk of activities of commercial actors drawing States into existing armed conflicts. This analysis stemmed from Elon Musk providing Starlink services...
Drone Strikes, Military Advantage, and Armed Conflict
In my new book Drone Strike: Analyzing the Impacts of Targeted Killing, I review evidence about the impacts of U.S. targeted strikes outside war zones on Al Qaeda and associated forces (“Al Qaeda”), as well as civilians, over the last 20 years. This evidence includes...
Ukraine Symposium – The Attack on the Vasily Bekh and Targeting Logistics Ships
On June 17, Ukrainian forces successfully used a U.S.-supplied Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile to attack and sink a Russian resupply ship that “almost certainly” carried weapons and reinforcements bound for Snake Island in the Black Sea. Two weeks later, on June 30,...
U.S. Strike Cells: Dispelling the Myths
Last August, in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the world witnessed a disastrous incident in Kabul when ten Afghan civilians, including up to seven children, were killed by a U.S. drone strike meant for ISIS. It was a truly tragic event, without...
Ukraine Symposium – Effects-Based Enforcement of Targeting Law
The international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine tragically demonstrates that the European continent is still not immune from war. It also illustrates that the laws of war are only as effective as the leadership and discipline that guides military forces...
Ukraine Symposium – Lawful Use of Nuclear Weapons
The February invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces was followed by an even graver threat to global peace as the Kremlin announced President Vladimir Putin’s order to raise Russia’s nuclear forces into a higher state of alert. Reportedly, Putin’s order enhances his...
Ukraine Symposium – Cultural Property Protection in the Ukraine Conflict
Cultural heritage is once again in the crosshairs of an invading army. The Ukrainians, while concentrating on defending their homeland and their people, have nonetheless dedicated considerable efforts to the protection of cultural property, both movable and unmovable....