International Organizations Howard College Law of War Assignment Research in greater depth and write about one of the laws of war. E.g., about landmines. S

International Organizations Howard College Law of War Assignment Research in greater depth and write about one of the laws of war. E.g., about landmines. See the syllabus in the start-up folder for instructions about assignments and how assignments are graded. All assignments are due in one week, so at midnight on Sunday at the end of the week in which the assignment was given. If late one-half point will be deducted. International Law
Law of War
Lecture
Objective. The objective of these course notes is to give you a short
overview of the laws of war.
You might be surprised to learn that there are laws of war! They date back
to 1625 when the Dutchman Hugo Grotius, the father of international law,
wrote a legal masterpiece, “On the Law of War and Peace.”
Figure 1 Picture of Hugo Grotius and his book, “On the Law of War and Peace”
At the time, there were power struggles in Europe and the Thirty Years’ War
broke out in 1618. Grotius observed, as discussed in the course notes about
war, “Throughout the Christian world … a lack of restraint in relation to war,
such as even barbarous nations should be ashamed of.”1 He had the idea
(again, ideas driving behavior in the world) that all nations had an interest in
minimizing bloodshed. So, he argued that only “just wars” should be
allowed, such as when one nation defended itself against an (unjust) attack
by another nation. One example would be that Kuwait was justified in
defending itself, with the help of the U.S. and other allies, against the
unprovoked attack by Suddam Hussein of Iraq. Grotius also wrote about
laws “in war,” how warriors should conduct themselves during a war. Thus,
Grotius developed:
1
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hugo-Grotius#ref43942
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? Laws about the right to go to war
• Called, “ jus ad bellum” (laws about going to war)
• E.g., is the war permissible; is it just?
? Laws about the conduct of war
• Called, “jus in bello” (laws in war)
• E.g., how should nations and soldiers conduct themselves
during wars?
Encyclopedia Britannica writes that Grotius and his masterpiece were most
influential in the development of international law. It created a foundation
for how to, “regulate relations between emerging sovereign states, which
became the basic units of modern international society.” As Europe had
colonized many other nations, European international law became global
international law, and Grotius’s influence was magnified on a global scale.
Grotius is often called the father of international law although of course
there were many others. One person has an idea and then others build upon
those ideas. Isaac Newton wrote famously in 1675, “If I have seen further it
is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
Basic Principles of the Law of War
The following are the three important principles governing the legal use of
force in armed conflict.
? Necessity
? Distinction
? Proportionality
Necessity refers to how the war must be militarily necessary, and in wars,
nations should only do what is military necessary to defeat the enemy. For
example, an attack must be on a legitimate military objective.
Distinction is a principle under governing the legal use of force in an armed
conflict, whereby belligerents must distinguish between combatants and
civilians. For example, soldiers must wear distinctive uniforms; they must
carry weapons openly; and they are not permitted to take hostages.
Proportionality refers to the principle of international law governing the legal
use of force in an armed conflict, whereby belligerents must make sure that
the harm caused to civilians or civilian property is not excessive in relation
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to the concrete and direct military advantage expected by an attack on a
legitimate military objective. This would preclude, for example, bombing
hospitals that only contain non-combatants. (An aside: the rule of
proportionality applies in medicine as well. Physicians should use the most
conservative method of treating any disease, the one that will cause the
least harm.)
International Humanitarian Law. According to the International Red Cross,2
warfare has always been subject to certain principles and customs. Those
customs and norms, built upon by such thinkers as Grotius, became what is
called international humanitarian law.
International humanitarian law is a set of rules which seek, for
humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict. It protects
persons who are not or are no longer participating in the hostilities and
restricts the means and methods of warfare. International
humanitarian law is also known as the law of war or the law of armed
conflict. (Emphasis added.)
?
Takeaway: the law of war is also known as international
humanitarian law.
Important Conventions About War. Next week we will be talking about the
sources of international law: where does it come from? (Sometimes I will
introduce a subject first like this, and later discuss it in more detail, which
will help you learn the concepts.) There are (1) general principles of law,
where certain conduct violates generally accepted principles of all civilized
nations. Such conduct includes genocide, torture, slavery, and piracy.
Another source of international law is (2) customary law, also called
“international humanitarian law,” described above. There were also customs
in international business law. And (3) conventions.
According to the United Nations, international conventions are, “treaties or
agreements between states (the primary actors in international law). …
International convention is used interchangeably with terms like
international treaty, international agreement, compact, or contract between
states.” So, a convention is like a contract but between nations instead of
between corporations. The following are important conventions about war.
? Hague conventions 1899 and 1907
? 1949 Geneva Conventions
? U.N. Charter
2
https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/what_is_ihl.pdf
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? U.N. Declaration on Human Rights
? Specific conventions (e.g., Ottawa Treaty banning landmines in 1990)
? Convention establishing the International Criminal Court (2002)
Almost done!
The Hague Conventions arose from international conferences held in the
Netherlands in 1899 in 1907. The Hague is a center for international law
(creation and adjudication, like FIFA creating rules of football and the
Disciplinary Committee enforcing them.)
The Geneva Conventions prohibit attacking soldiers parachuting from an
aircraft in distress; require giving an opportunity to surrender before being
attacked; prohibit attacking doctors, ambulances or hospital ships displaying
the Red Cross, and prohibiting using protected people or property as human
shields (as ISIS unfortunately did in defending Mosul in Iraq – if interested,
optional, click here).
The Geneva Conventions also established that persons who have ordered
grave breaches of law such as atrocities can be held individually accountable
for war crimes under international criminal law. The 1899 Hague Convention
also created the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which not long ago
adjudicated the dispute arising from China building military bases on semisubmerged reefs in the South China Sea that are much closer to the
Philippines than to China.
We will discuss the U.N. Charter and Declaration of Rights in another “class”.
END OF THIS COURSE NOTE ??
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Objective. The objective of these course notes, lecture, or talk is for you to gain a
general understanding of facts about war: e.g., history; types; effects; and causes.
The topic of war is immense, of course, and this is a survey course, so this talk will
just give you an overview of the subject.
After you learn some basic facts about war, the next course notes will briefly
discuss the law of war, and there will be a related assignment.
Definition
War is confrontation using weapons by armed forces employ military tactics. Peace
is the opposite of war, violence, or hostility, a state of tranquility and stillness.
Brief History of War
As mentioned, war has bedeviled people throughout history. Nomadic societies
were largely peaceful and cooperative, but when nomadic groups encountered each
other in a situation where they were competing over limited resources such as food,
conflict would ensue. For example, after World War II, a valley was discovered in
Papua New Guinea where two tribes had been fighting and killing each other for as
long as anyone could remember. On a few holidays they would call a truce and then
begin fighting again.
? It is easy for you to remember that, when left alone, nomads were largely
peaceful. They were nomad.
Ancient History. The first recorded evidence of war, signs of violent deaths, date
back about 14,000 years. About 5000 years ago, as states or nations formed, there
has been military activity over much of the globe. One of the reasons was the
invention by the Chinese of gunpowder, later stoked by technological advances in
weaponry.
As an interesting aside, the genius Leonardo da Vinci, in his successful application
letter for a job in the early 1480s with the ruler of Milan, indicated that he had
plans for portable and indestructible bridges and for how to destroy the enemy’s
bridges; how to remove water from moats and build scaling ladders (and later, an
easy way to repel the ladders); how to bombard any fortress no matter how high or
on a foundation of rock; to make portable cannons that could hurl small stones like
a hailstorm; how to build tunnels silently; build unassailable vehicles, etc. He then
penned the remarkable understatement, “Also I can execute sculpture … and
[paint].”
? Some of these “pointers” will be asides that come to mind, perhaps not
even closely related to the lecture topic, that I share in the hope that you
will find them interesting and useful.
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I mention that a nephew, who is getting a Ph.D., and who I have every
reason to believe is a great teacher, got a review saying that he is, “the
worst teacher ever, I repeat ever … If there is a river, and we are supposed
to go down the river, but the river has tributaries, Steven will go down every
tributary!” But that is part of what learning is about. It is easy to go
straight down “a river”, but you will not see the tributaries, which form the
river. It won’t help you much just to learn about “the river” and to
regurgitate facts about it. You want to learn how to analyze ideas and
situations and how to find connections between them, which will help you in
your work and life in general.
Ideas such as Leonardo’s drive engineering, art, business, and pretty much
everything! A friend of mine married the most senior woman at American Express.
After seeing men advance when she did not, she started thinking, I am smarter
than they are, and she started to “lean in.” Click here for the book: she is a guest
lecturer and highly recommends the book to women. Noticing that American
Express was having a hard time getting its card accepted around the world, and
that it would take forever for Amex to call on retailers around the world, she came
up with the idea of partnering with banks worldwide, and having those banks
introduce the Amex card to its customers. This required “cannibalization” or giving
up profits, but the result was that now the Amex card is everywhere, and her
company made a huge amount of money. I do not know whether Amex simply gave
her stock options, but knowing her, if they did not, she would have demanded stock
options, and now she is ridiculously rich. Because of one idea!
Back to Wars. Can you guess how many have occurred and how many lives have
been lost versus the years of peace in the world? There have been 14,500 wars
since 3,500 BC; 3.5 billion lives have been lost (and likely many multiples of that
injured); versus only 300 years of peace! 90% to 95% of known societies
throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare and many fought
constantly, such as the lost tribe of Papua New Guinea. Japan was at peace for
hundreds of years but only because the country closed itself off to outsiders.
All primitive societies engaged in primitive combat: small raids, large raids, and
massacres. They were not well organized by today’s standards. Warriors had no
formal training. If you can imagine yourself among a small group of nomads in
ancient times, sleeping in the desert in the desert say with one person on the
lookout in the dark, you can appreciate how difficult it would be to protect yourself
from the occasional enemy raid.
Even advanced preliterate societies were known for cruelty, as evidenced for
example by prehistoric massacres. As mentioned, empires were built by
conquerors, who enslaved or ruled and exploited people they captured. One
example as mentioned was our very own Christopher Columbus:
Columbus and his men enslaved many native inhabitants of the West Indies
and subjected them to extreme violence and brutality. … Columbus enacted
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policies of forced labor in which natives were put to work for the sake of
profits. Later, Columbus sent thousands of peaceful Taino ‘Indians’ from the
island of Hispaniola to Spain to be sold. Many died en route. … Those left
behind were forced to search for gold in mines and work on plantations.
Within 60 years after Columbus landed, only a few hundred of what may
have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island. [!] … As governor and
viceroy of the Indies, Columbus imposed iron discipline on what is now the
Caribbean country of Dominican Republic, according to documents
discovered by Spanish historians in 2005. In response to native unrest and
revolt, Columbus ordered a brutal crackdown in which many natives were
killed; in an attempt to deter further rebellion, Columbus ordered their
dismembered bodies to be paraded through the streets. … In addition to the
controversy over enslavement and violent rule, the ‘Age of Exploration’ [of
the Americas] that Columbus helped lead had the additional consequence of
bringing new diseases to the New World which would, over time, devastate
the native populations of many New World islands and communities. 1
? We were taught that Columbus was a hero when he was a villain. It
seems a good idea to question pretty much anything! For example, working
at Goldman Sachs may seem like the road to riches, and it is, but many
people hate working there. Someone making a lot of money at Goldman
Sachs wants to work for my son — who is in finance too but works for
himself and makes his own hours — even though he would make much less
money, likely two-thirds less. The man wants to have a life.
Another friend of mine gave up a career in international banking to become
a boat captain, which he has done since he was 30. He had an MBA, worked
at Deutsche Bank, but the day I met him, when we were taking the train to
sail on his 19-foot sailboat, then at the end of Long Island (pronounced
“Lawn Gisland”), he said that his dream was to become a boat captain.
While working in banking, he got his boating licenses and worked his way up
until he got a job as captain of the 212-foot yacht of the richest man in
America! When his son was growing up, and he wanted to stay in the US,
my friend started overseeing the construction of mega yachts for billionaires
like the owner of Sbarro pizzas. On the side he also started a company
selling brass fittings for boats. He has had a fascinating life traveling the
world, met his wife in Finland, and has made good money doing it. There are
a virtually unlimited number of jobs in business, especially if you look
beyond the U.S.
In Western Europe, since the late 18th century, more than 150 conflicts and about
600 battles have taken place.
1
https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/columbus-controversy
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[Description: Watch this incredible video of the military history of Europe, 6,000
years in 3 minutes, showing countless wars and changing boundaries as the
European nations we know today were formed.]
So there is constant change in just about everything. Technological innovation,
including in the technology of war, occurs at an incredibly rapid pace, leading to
increased destructiveness and lethality. For example, I know a man from Colorado
who started out as a metal worker paid by the hour. He was in the right place at
the right time and became a partner in a company in Colorado Springs, a military
town, that produces armor for military vehicles. So just as Leonardo envisioned
armored vehicles, by the 21st century, armor for vehicles had become increasingly
sophisticated. This became a big business during the Iraq war (understatement –
there was an article about how big the industry was in the Wall Street Journal). The
man told me that as soon as his company developed one type of armor for
Humvees, the Iraqis would build a weapon that would penetrate the armor, so his
company continually had to come up with better armor using every stronger
materials. (FYI the government once owed his company $13 million but delayed
paying it for such a long time that he had to go and beg for it as he needed it to
pay his workers and keep his company going.)
Next week, we will talk about how after the end of World War II, the United Nations
was formed, joined by virtually all countries, with the goal of eliminating war and
creating a lasting peace. And although it may appear from the news that there are
always wars everywhere, there actually has been a significant decline in the
number and severity of armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War in the early
1990s, and an increase in democracy as well, at least until recently. There is graph
on the next page showing steadily declining battle deaths per year since WWII.
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International Law
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Types of Wars.2 Wars can be categorized as follows:
Asymmetric warfare refers to a conflict where one military is powerful and the other
relatively weak in capability or size. Think the United States navy invading and
annexing Hawaii, run by a monarch with a largely peaceful and unarmed
population.
Biological warfare or germ warfare, is the use of weaponized biological toxins or
infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
Chemical warfare involved the use of weaponized chemicals in combat. Poison gas
as a chemical weapon was principally used during World War I, and resulted in over
a million estimated casualties, including more than 100,000 civilians.
Civil war is a war between forces belonging to the same nation or political entity.
Conventional warfare is declared war between states in which nuclear, biological,
or chemical weapons are not used or see limited deployment.
Cyberwarfare involves the actions by a nation-state or international organization to
attack and attempt to damage another nation’s information systems.
Nuclear warfare is warfare in which nuclear weapons are the primary, or a major,
method of achieving capitulation.
Total war. You might assume that every war is a total war but that is not the case.
Total war is “warfare by any means possible, disregarding the laws of war, placing
no limits on legitimate military targets, using weapons and tactics resulting in
significant civilian casualties, or demanding a war effort requiring significant
sacrifices by the friendly civilian population.” Think World Wars I and II, where
Nazis tortured and murdered civilians because they were Jewish, and the U.S.
dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to end the war.
As an aside, after we dropped one atom bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, wiping
out 90% of the city, Emperor Hirohito said nothing, so we dropped another
bomb on Nagasaki. Only then did he surrender, citing the devastating power
of, “a new and most cruel bomb.” Had he surrendered after the first bomb,
he would have stopped the U.S. from dropping the second bomb, and many
Japanese lives.
2
These comes from my notes for lectures, and I am not sure or their origin. Otherwise I would cite the source.
That likely will happen on occasion again during this. Be sure to…
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