Academic

Stephens on Counterinsurgency & the Law of Armed Conflict

By Lawrence Solum

Dale Stephens (Harvard Law School) has posted Counterinsurgency and Stability Operations: A New Approach to Legal Interpretation (US Naval War College, International Law Studies (Blue Book) Series, Vol. 86, pp. 289-321, 2010) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

We are currently living in the post modern era of warfare where small scale, internecine conflict is the norm. It turns out that such warfare can be as deadly and strategically significant as conventional warfare. The US military has re-conceptualized how such wars are to be effectively engaged with the publication of the Counterinsurgency and Stability Operations field manuals. These manuals represent a decisive shift in the manner such conflicts are to be perceived and fought. Notwithstanding such a decisive operational change, there has been a correlative lag in accompanying legal interpretative practice. This article seeks to redress that omission and offers a theoretical and practical framework for optimizing the interpretative enterprise experienced in applying the Law of Armed Conflict to counterinsurgency and stability operations.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on March 18, 2011 (boomark / email).