The First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions ("AP I") is central to the modern law of war, widely referred to as international humanitarian law outside the United States. It updates the Geneva Conventions for protection of war victims and combines them with new or updated rules governing hostilities and the use of weapons found in the Hague Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War. Due to its comprehensive nature and adoption by a majority of States, AP I is frequently cited as the source for law of war rules by attorneys and others interested in protecting humanitarian interests. The challenge for United States attorneys, however, is that their country is not a party to AP I and has been a persistent objector to many of its new rules.While the United States signed the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions in 1977, it determined, after 10 years of analysis, that it would not ratify the protocol. President Reagan called AP I "fundamentally and irreconcilably flawed."1 Yet, as will be detailed throughout this guide, United States officials have declared that aspects of AP I are customary international law. Forty years after signing AP I, and 30 years after rejecting it, the United States has never presented a comprehensive, systematic, official position on the protocol. Officials from the United States Departments of Defense and State have taken positions on particular portions of it. This guide attempts to bring those sources together in one location.

Non-international armed conflicts now far outnumber international ones, but the protection afforded by international law to combatants and civilian is not always clear. This book will set out the legal rules and state practice applicable to internal armed conflicts, drawing on armed conflicts from the US civil war to present day.

NTTP 3-54M/MCWP 3-40.9 provides the commander with an operations security (OPSEC) overview, OPSEC evolution, and guidance for the most crucial aspect of OPSEC, that of identifying critical information (CI). It explains the OPSEC process, also known as the OPSEC five-step process. This publication addresses the areas of OPSEC and force protection, public affairs officer (PAO) interaction, the role of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) in coordination with OPSEC, the OPSEC/OMBUDSMAN/KEY VOLUNTEER relationship and the conduct of OPSEC assessments. This publication includes separate chapters on Web page registration, Web risk assessment, and Red team activity. Appendices provide guidance to implement effective plans/programs at the individual unit, strike group, and shore establishment levels. NWP 3-13 (FEB 2014), NAVY INFORMATION OPERATIONS, provides information operations guidance to Navy commanders, planners, and operators to exploit and shape the information environment and apply information-related capabilities to achieve military objectives. This publication reinforces the integrating functionality of information operations to incorporate informationrelated capabilities and engage in the information environment to provide a military advantage to the friendly Navy force. It is effective upon receipt. 1. NWP 1-14M/MCTP 11-10B/COMDTPUB P5800.7A (AUG 2017), THE COMMANDER’S HANDBOOK ON THE LAW OF NAVAL OPERATIONS, is available in the Navy Warfare Library. It is effective upon receipt and supersedes NWP 1-14M/MCWP 5-12.1/COMDTPUB 5800.7A (JUL 2007), The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations. 2. Summary. This revision updates and expands upon various topics regarding the law of the sea and law of war. In particular, it updates the history of U.S. Senate consideration of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to include its 2012 hearings; emphasizes that islands, rocks, and low-tide elevations are naturally formed and that engineering, construction, and land reclamation cannot convert their legal status; provides more detail on U.S. sovereign immunity policy for Military Sealift Command chartered vessels and for responding to foreign requests for health inspections and medical information; removes language indicating that all USN/USCG vessels under command of a noncommissioned officer are auxiliary vessels; emphasizes that only warships may exercise belligerent rights during international armed conflicts; adds a description of U.S.-Chinese bilateral and multilateral agreements promoting air and maritime safety; updates the international law applicable to vessels seeking a place of refuge; updates the description of vessels assimilated to vessels without nationality; provides detailed descriptions of the five types of international straits; states the U.S. position on the legal status of the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route; updates the list of international duties in outer space; updates the law regarding the right of safe harbor; adds “honor” as a law of war principle; adds information about weapons reviews in the Department of the Navy; updates the law regarding unprivileged enemy belligerents; includes information about the U.S. position on the use of landmines; expands on the discussion of the International Criminal Court (ICC); and updates the law of targeting.