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A la guerre comme à la guerre:* patterns of armed conflict, humanitarian law responses and new challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2007

Abstract

Continuous transformation of armed conflict since the adoption in 1864 of the first international humanitarian law treaty compels international humanitarian law to adapt accordingly. These adaptations, through either customary law or new multilateral treaties, always have been towards greater protection, greater reach. As for treaty practice, international humanitarian law historically has been substantially revised every twenty-five to thirty years. This article links those revisions to specific conflicts which laid bare deficiencies in the existing law. What follows is thus a chronicle of conflicts with their most critical humanitarian issues. From this emerges a picture of the changing face of armed conflict since the middle of the nineteenth century. The article also considers recent challenges to international humanitarian law and speculates on possible responses.

Type
Methods of Warfare
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2007

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References

* French proverb, meaning that one has to go to war with the means available, and adapt to the circumstances.

I dedicate this article to my friend, neighbour and colleague, physics professor Michael Wiescher, with whom I had the pleasure of co-teaching a course on nuclear warfare. An earlier version of this article is forthcoming in Jan Wouters and Sten Verhoeven (eds.), Armed Conflicts and the Law, 2007.