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The Military Response To Criminal Violent Extremist Groups: Aligning Use Of Force Presumptions With Threat Reality, Geoffrey S. Corn

Geoffrey S. Corn

Debates over the permissible authority to use force against emerging non-state threats are consistently dictated by a binary legal paradigm: either armed conflict is recognized permitting status based targeting or law enforcement conduct based use of force norms must be respected. This paradigm has driven an expansion of the threats characterized by states as falling within the scope of non-international armed conflicts, a trend that has produced substantial controversy. At the same time, in many states organized criminal groups are creating unprecedented challenges to government authority by utilizing widespread and indiscriminate violence to sow the seeds of chaos and demonstrate …