New Warfare

<p>This book looks at the evolving relationship between war and international law examining the complex practical and legal dilemmas posed by the changing nature of war in the contemporary world whether the traditional rules governing the onset and conduct of hostilities apply anymore and how they might be adapted to new realities. War always messy has become even messier today with the blurring of interstate intrastate and extrastate violence. How can the United States and other countries be expected to fight honourably and observe the existing norms when they often are up against an adversary who recognizes no such obligations? Indeed how do we even know whether an armed conflict is underway when modern wars tend to lack neat beginnings and endings and seem geographically indeterminate as well? What is the legality of anticipatory self-defense humanitarian intervention targeted killings drones detention of captured prisoners without POW status and other controversial practices? These questions are explored through a review of the United Nations Charter Geneva Conventions and other regimes and how they have operated in recent conflicts. Through a series of case studies including the U.S. war on terror and the wars in Afghanistan Iraq Gaza Kosovo and Congo the author illustrates the challenges we face today in the ongoing effort to reduce war and when it occurs to make it more humane.</p>