Military intervention in a conflict without a reasonable prospect of success is unjustifiable, especially when it is done in the name of humanity. Couched in the debate on the responsibility to protect civilians from violence and drawing on traditional 'just war' principles, the centralpremise of this book is that humanitarian military intervention can be justified as a policy option only if decision makers can be reasonably sure that intervention will do more good than harm. This book asks, 'Have past humanitarian military interventions been successful?' It defines success as saving lives and sets out a methodology for estimating the number of lives saved by a particular military intervention. Analysis of 17 military operations in six conflict areas that were thedefining cases of the 1990s-northern Iraq after the Gulf War, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Kosovo and East Timor-shows that the majority were successful by this measure. In every conflict studied, however, some military interventions succeeded while others failed, raising the question, 'Why have some past interventions been more successful than others?' This book argues that the central factors determining whether a humanitarian intervention succeeds are theobjectives of the intervention and the military strategy employed by the intervening states. Four types of humanitarian military intervention are offered: helping to deliver emergency aid, protecting aid operations, saving the victims of violence and defeating the perpetrators of violence. Thefocus on strategy within these four types allows an exploration of the political and military dimensions of humanitarian intervention and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each of the four types.Humanitarian military intervention is controversial. Scepticism is always in order about the need to use military force because the consequences can be so dire. Yet it has become equally controversial not to intervene when a government subjects its citizens to massive violation of their basic humanrights. This book recognizes the limits of humanitarian intervention but does not shy away from suggesting how military force can save lives in extreme circumstances.

This book traces the position of the United States of America on aggression, beginning with the Declaration of Independence up to 2020, covering the four years of the Trump Administration. The decision of the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court to activate the Court’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression in 2018 has added further value to a book concerning the position and practice of one of the most influential states, a global military power and permanent member of the UN Security Council. Organized along chronological lines, the work examines whether, or to what extent, the US position has evolved over time. The book explores how the definition of the crime can impact upon the US, notwithstanding its failure to ratify the Rome Statute. It also shows that the US practice and opinio iuris about the law applicable to the use of force might influence, as it has done in the past, the law itself. The work will be a valuable guide for students, academics and professionals with an interest in International Criminal Law.

Examining some of the huge challenges that liberal States faced in the decade after 11 September 2001, the chapters in this book address three aspects of the impact of more than a decade of military action.This book begins by considering four different expressions of universalist moral aspirations, including the prohibition of torture, and discusses migration and ’responsibility to protect,’ as well as the United Nations Human Rights Committee's Concluding Observations about security and liberty in the last decade. International humanitarian law and the problems posed by the territorial character of war and the effects of new technologies and child soldiers are also analysed. Finally, Islamic law and its interface with international law is considered from a new perspective, and contributions in this final part offer a different way of thinking about an authentically Islamic modernisation that would be compatible with Western models of political order. With contributions from international lawyers from diverse backgrounds, this book fills an important gap in the literature on the themes of international human rights law, international humanitarian law and Islamic law.

Throughout the first decades of its existence, many held the view that the UN Security Council would in some senses automatically encourage the protection of human rights by maintaining international peace. However since the end of the Cold War there have been growing concerns that the Council is a force with the potential to do harm to the cause of human rights, even to the extent of violating the rights of individuals. The chapters of this volume take a closer look at these two sides of the Security Council's involvement in human rights; both its efforts to promote and enforce human rights, and its actions that, with the intention of maintaining and restoring international peace, also have the potential to jeopardize human rights. This book represents a collection of individual views and appraisals of how the Council has dealt with human rights issues in the post-Cold War period, particularly in the cases of the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq and the targeted sanctions directed against the Taliban and supporters of the Al Qaida network. Written by experts in the field of international law, they are both positive and negative, critical and analytical. Together they offer a selection of different perspectives and evaluate the contribution of the Security Council to the promotion of human rights, highlighting possible avenue for improvement.

ÔFeaturing some of the fieldÕs most expert thinkers, this is an adroitly constructed volume of essays in Òconflict and security lawÓ. The writing here offers a distillation of the major legal projects in the area while dissolving some of international lawÕs most rigid demarcations (e.g. between war and peace, or the jus ad bellum and jus in bello).Õ Ð Gerry Simpson, University of Melbourne, Australia ÔA most important and timely collection of essays that places the established international rules in their modern and challenging of context.Õ Ð Philippe Sands QC, University College London, UK ÔEvents of the past fifteen years have sharpened the focus on well-known issues in international conflict and security law. What responses to international terrorism are permissible? Can humanitarian intervention be justified under international law? The Research Handbook on International Conflict and Security Law addresses these and other debates across the areas of conflict prevention, use of force and post-conflict reconstruction, with the critical insight for which the contributors are known.Õ Ð James Crawford, University of Cambridge, UK This innovative Research Handbook brings together leading international law scholars from around the world to discuss and highlight the contemporary debate regarding issues of conflict prevention and the legality of resorting to the use of armed force through to those arising during an armed conflict and in the phase between conflict and peace. The Handbook covers key conceptual topics drawn from across the three areas of jus ad bellum, jus in bello and jus post bellum. The subject matter of the included chapters range from conflict prevention through to reparation and compensation, via coverage of issues such as disarmament, the role of the Security Council, self-defence, humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect, targets, war crimes, private military contractors, peacekeeping, and the protection of human rights. Being the first to examine topics under these areas in one volume, the book will be of interest to scholars, academics, postgraduate and research students as well as government lawyers from various disciplinary backgrounds looking for a contemporary grounding in issues under the broad theme of international conflict and security law.

Explores how international law applies to transitional governance from a multi-actor perspective in conflict-riven countries.