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Emory University School of Law's Laurie R. Blank (who heads Emory's International Humanitarian Law Clinic) is a leading and prolific scholar and practitioner in the field of the law of armed conflict (and occasional Lawfare contributor).
[The post below is the latest installment of the joint blog series arising from the 2016 Transatlantic Dialogue on International Law and Armed Conflict.
At this week's Hoover Book Soiree, Rosa Brooks joined Benjamin Wittes to talk about her new book, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon. The book covers an extraordinary range of territory, from Brooks' personal experiences working as a civilian advisor at the Pentagon, to the history of the laws of war, to an analysis of the U.S. military's expanded role in a world in which the lines between war and peace are increasingly uncertain.
[I am happy to report that Lawfare once again is partnering with InterCross and EJILTalk! to present posts stemming from a summer roundtable at Oxford concerning international law and armed conflict.
PDF version
A review of Theoretical Boundaries of Armed Conflict and Human Rights, edited by Jens David Ohlin (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
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Rebecca Hamilton (who, I’m pleased to say, has just joined my faculty, Washington College of Law, American University, in areas of international law and national security) has an article on international criminal law (ICL) appearing in the new issue of the Yale Journal of International Law, titled “State-Enabled Crimes” (SSRN link here).
The October 2015 bombing of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan has amplified a long-simmering discussion regarding the ability of the American military to objectively conduct internal investigations into war crimes and, where necessary, to hold culpable individuals accountable. Throughout the last fifteen years of conflict, the military has investigated and prosecuted numerous allegations of war crimes—defined here as serious violations of the laws of armed conflict.
Recently, the Los Angeles Times reported that the U.S. Air Force had awarded civilian service contracts to include the operation of MQ-9 Reaper drones.
War would be easier if an enemy agreed to stand still. Unfortunately, in actual armed conflicts dynamic adversaries constantly strive to gain the tactical upper hand.
In this comment, I would like to offer some thoughts in response to Butch Bracknell’s recent post on the targeting of ISIL oil transport trucks by the US in eastern Syria.