International Law and New Wars

Examines the difficulties in applying international law to recent armed conflicts known as 'new wars'.

Christine Chinkin (Author), Mary Kaldor (Author)

9781107171213, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 April 2017

608 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 3.6 cm, 0.99 kg

'Christine Chinkin and Mary Kaldor's International Law and New Wars should be on the reading list of every service as well as that of the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and it should be taught in every war college. … [T]his is a book that should be read again and again. It is an energizing vehicle for facilitating vigorous discussion.' Cornelia Weiss, Parameters

International Law and New Wars examines how international law fails to address the contemporary experience of what are known as 'new wars' - instances of armed conflict and violence in places such as Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. International law, largely constructed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rests to a great extent on the outmoded concept of war drawn from European experience - inter-state clashes involving battles between regular and identifiable armed forces. The book shows how different approaches are associated with different interpretations of international law, and, in some cases, this has dangerously weakened the legal restraints on war established after 1945. It puts forward a practical case for what it defines as second generation human security and the implications this carries for international law.

Part I. Conceptual Framework: 1. Introduction
2. Sovereignty and the authority to use force
3. The relevance of international law
Part II. Jus ad Bellum: 4. Self-defence as a justification for war: the geopolitical and war on terror models
5. The humanitarian model for recourse to use force
Part III. Jus in Bello: 6. How force is used
7. Weapons
Part IV. Jus Post-Bellum: 8. 'Post-conflict' and governance
9. The liberal peace: peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding
10. Justice and accountability
Part V. The Way Forward: 11. Second generation human security
12. What does human security require of international law?

Subject Areas: International humanitarian law [LBBS], International law [LB], Military history: post WW2 conflicts [HBWS]