Evaluates various means of inducing compliance with international humanitarian law by state and non-state actors.

The number of armed conflicts featuring extreme violence against the civilian population in areas with no or little state authority has risen significantly since the early 1990s. This phenomenon has been particularly prevalent in the African Great Lakes Region. This collection of essays evaluates, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the various traditional and alternative instruments for inducing compliance with international humanitarian law. In particular, it explores the potential of persuasion, as well as hierarchical means such as criminal justice on the international and domestic level or quasi-judicial mechanisms by armed groups. Furthermore, it evaluates the role and potential of human rights bodies, peacekeeping missions and the UN Security Council's special compliance system for children and armed conflicts. It also considers how Common Article 1 to the Geneva Conventions and the law of state responsibility could both potentially increase compliance with international humanitarian law.

An evaluation of the importance of reciprocity in considering states' legal obligations in armed conflicts.

This book analyzes civil wars over the past twenty years and examines what motivates some rebel groups to abide by international law.

The third edition of this work sets out a comprehensive and analytical manual of international humanitarian law, accompanied by case analysis and extensive explanatory commentary by a team of distinguished and internationally renowned experts.

This important and unique volume begins with seven essays that discuss the contemporary challenges to implementing international humanitarian law. Its second and largest section comprises 263 entries covering the vast majority of IHL concepts. Written by a wide range of experts, each entry explains the essential legal parameters of a particular element of IHL, while offering practical examples and, where relevant, historical considerations, and supplying a short bibliography for further research. The starting point for the selection were notions arising from the Geneva Conventions, the Additional Protocols, and other IHL treaties. However, the reader will also encounter entries going beyond the typical scope of IHL, such as those related to the protection of the natural environment and animals, and entries that, in addition to an IHL perspective, discuss relevant issues through the lens of human rights law, refugee law, international criminal law, the law on State responsibility, national law, and so on. The editors have also attempted to take into account certain concepts that have no direct foundation in IHL, but that are commonly used in mass media and politics, or generate wide interest in contemporary society, such as drones, economic warfare, cyber warfare, sniping, targeted killings, transitional justice, terrorism, and many other topics. The Companion to International Humanitarian Law offers a much-needed tool for both scholars and practitioners, supplying information accessible enough to enable a variety of users to quickly familiarise themselves with it and sufficiently comprehensive to be a source for reflection and further research for more demanding users. Its aim is to facilitate the practical application of IHL, and be of use to a wide audience interested in or confronted with IHL, ranging from professionals in humanitarian assistance and protection in the field, legal officers and advisers at the national and international level, trainers, academics, scholars, and students.

Two decades on from 9/11, the Taliban now control more than half of Afghanistan. Few would have foreseen such an outcome, and there is little understanding of how Afghans living in Taliban territory have navigated life under insurgent rule. Based on over 400 interviews with Taliban and civilians, this book tells the story of how civilians have not only bargained with the Taliban for their survival, but also ultimately influenced the course of the war in Afghanistan. While the Taliban have the power of violence on their side, they nonetheless need civilians to comply with their authority. Both strategically and by necessity, civilians have leveraged this reliance on their obedience in order to influence Taliban behaviour. Challenging prevailing beliefs about civilians in wartime, Negotiating Survival presents a new model for understanding how civilian agency can shape the conduct of insurgencies. It also provides timely insights into Taliban strategy and objectives, explaining how the organisation has so nearly triumphed on the battlefield and in peace talks. While Afghanistan's future is deeply unpredictable, there is one certainty: it is as critical as ever to understand the Taliban--and how civilians survive their rule.