Military, War, and Peace Commons^™

Updating The Caroline Doctrine: A Relic In An Age Of Hypersonic Weapons, David S. Jonas, Tyler Breeden

American University International Law Review

The United States dropped “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, bringing an end to World War II and killing between 110,000 and 210,000 people. Japan surely needed much more than rock and roll to help them—especially since Japan had no nuclear weapons of their own to deter the United States from attacking with nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons technology has evolved considerably in the years since 1945, when only the United States possessed nuclear weapons. Nine states now have or are suspected of having them, and at least one other state appears to …

Future-Proofing U.S. Laws For War Crimes Investigations In The Digital Era, Rebecca Hamilton

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Advances in information technology have irrevocably changed the nature of war crimes investigations. The pursuit of accountability for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community now invariably requires access to digital evidence. The global reach of platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter means that much of that digital evidence is held by U.S. social media companies, and access to it is subject to the U.S. Stored Communications Act.

This is the first Article to look at the legal landscape facing international investigators seeking access to digital evidence regarding genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression. It …

Into The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death: War Crimes Committed In Service Of Russia's Crusade To Destroy Ukraine, Chris Galarza

American University National Security Law Brief

When Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine during the early morning of February 24, 2022, most in the American defense and diplomatic establishment were shocked and sure the war would be over in a few days. Credible open-source tactical and strategic analysis predicted that Ukraine’s regular military forces would be defeated in “days or weeks” as long as Russian military forces were determined to pursue their objectives. The United States Government was so sure that Kyiv was under imminent threat of capture that they offered to evacuate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy so that he could rule from exile, rather …

Revisiting Goldwater-Nichols: Why Making The Joint Staff A General Staff Will Improve Civilian Control Of The Military And Refine The Constitutional Balance Of War Powers, Michael D. Minerva

American University National Security Law Brief

As the United States has progressively become more involved globally since World War II, the U.S. military is being stretched beyond the professional military competency straining civilian control of the military. To remedy this, it is again time to revisit our national security structure, and adopt a General Staff in place of the Joint Staff. Following World War II and the destruction of the German General Staff by the Nazi Party, the General Staff as an institution has been emotionally rejected in the United States without a careful historical and legal examination of how that institution operates under varying forms …

Ukraine's Push To Prosecute Aggression: Implications For Immunity Ratione Personae And The Crime Of Aggression, Rebecca Hamilton

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine dates back to its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s southern peninsula, Crimea. It was Russia’s brazen full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, however, that captured global attention and put the crime of aggression – the resort to war in violation of the UN Charter3 – in the spotlight.

Hostility Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: Why Congress Should Decriminalize Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment In The Military, Adam J. Crane

Criminal Law Practitioner

In 2022, for the first time in American history, Congress enacted legislation criminalizing hostile work environment sexual harassment. More serious types of sexual harassment have long been criminal under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but hostile work environment harassment is a civil wrong, not a crime, and should not have been made into one. Section 539D of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (now listed under Article 134, UCMJ (Sexual Harassment), is both unconstitutional and counterproductive. It violates the Fifth Amendment for vagueness by failing to provide fair notice of what is prohibited, and the First …

A Double Standard In Refugee Response: Contrasting The Treatment Of Syrian Refugees With Ukrainian Refugees, Deanna Alsbeti

Human Rights Brief

The unrelenting proliferation of international crises marks the twenty-first century with mass global displacement. In 2011, the world witnessed the Arab Spring, a series of anti-government protests that led to the Syrian Civil War and injected more than 13.5 million displaced Syrians into the global system. Today, twelve years later, the international system still struggles to accommodate and protect Syrians who cannot return to their homeland. In addition to the dire Syrian refugee crisis, and other refugee crises throughout the globe, the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine added approximately 7.5 million Ukrainian refugees to the world’s already stressed humanitarian system.

War Crimes: History, Basic Concepts, And Structures, Richard J. Wilson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

On May 24, 20022, the Washington Post carried front-page news that a court in Ukraine had sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier, Vadim Shishimarin, to life imprisonment for the war crime of premeditated murder of a civilian, 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov. The session was the first war crimes trial in Ukraine since Russia's invasion three months earlier.

National Security Decision-Making In The Age Of Technology: Delivering Outcomes On Time And On Target, Gary Corn

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Lawyering Peace: Infusing Accountability Into The Peace Negotiations Process, Paul Williams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

On August 28, 2019, Dr. Paul R. Williams delivered the Bruce J. Klatsky Endowed Lecture on Human Rights at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. This article, based on his lecture, examines how justice has repeatedly found a foothold in peace processes, and how the international community can continue to work towards embedding accountability into peace processes to achieve durable peace. This article traces the arc of accountability in peace processes, from an era of impunity and a period of stepping stones moments, to today’s uncertain moment for post-conflict accountability and justice mechanisms. The author argues that comprehensive transitional …

Citizen Soldiers And The Foundation Fusion Of Masculinity, Citizenship, And Military Service, Jamie Abrams, Nickole Durbin

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Sarah Livingston Jay famously toasted revelers in 1783: "May all our citizens be soldiers, and all our soldiers citizens." This toast conveyed "a foundational fusion" within our republican government tradition-coupling military service, citizenship, and masculinities.' The Akron Law School's conference on the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment offered the chance to fight the eulogization of the Nineteenth Amendment and explore its modern relevance. This paper concludes that the Nineteenth Amendment cannot be understood without connecting it to broader conceptions of citizenship, masculinities, and military service, thus revealing its ongoing relevance to military inclusion and integration.

In …

Review Of Recent Veterans Law Decisions Of The Federal Circuit, Angela K. Drake, Yelena Duterte, Stacey-Rae Simcox

American University Law Review

The last in-depth review of veterans law cases decided by the Federal Circuit was published by the American University Law Review in 2015. Since that time, the Federal Circuit has substantially changed procedural rules applicable to veterans cases, including authorizing the use of the class action device and clarifying the correct standard to use when challenging agency delay and inaction. In an important case with wide application to administrative law generally, the Federal Circuit addressed the issue of proper deference for agency regulations and policies. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in Kisor v. Wilkie and reaffirmed principles articulated in Auer …

Documentation For Accountability, Paul Williams, Jessica Levy

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The cost of armed conflict is borne not only in the stark number of lives lost, but also in the grave atrocity crimes committed during these periods. Despite the legal protections set forth in the Geneva Conventions and other foundational documents of international humanitarian law, perpetrators continue to commit crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. Documenting these atrocity crimes has become a crucial step in efforts to secure justice for victims and survivors of these atrocities. To support the expanding field of human rights documentation, the international community must redouble its efforts to ensure that civil society actors engaged …

The Rohingya Genocide, Paul Williams, Todd F. Buchwald, Jenny Domino, Rebecca Hamilton, Michael P. Scharf, Meilena Sterio

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Inter-American Commission On Human Rights' Observer At The Amia Bombing Trial, Claudio Grossman

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Congress-In-Chief: Congressional Options To Compel Presidential War-Making, Clark H. Campbell

American University National Security Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Treason In The Age Of Terrorism: Do Americans Who Join Isis 'Levy War' Against The United States?, Stephen Jackson

American University National Security Law Brief

No abstract provided.

The Bemba Appeals Chamber Judgment: Impunity For Sexual And Gender-Based Crimes?, Susana Sacouto, Patricia Viseur Sellers

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

On June 8, 2018, a majority of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) reversed the conviction of former military commander Jean-Pierre Bemba for the crimes against humanity of rape and murder and the war crimes of rape, murder, and pillaging committed by his troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) between October 2002, and March 2003. The decision was clearly a disappointment for the victims of the crimes committed by Bemba’s troops, who have been waiting for more than fifteen years for a measure of justice. Significantly, the acquittal also means that sixteen years after the Rome …

Defeating The Object And Purpose Of The Arms Trade Treaty: An Analysis Of Recent U.S. Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia, William Pons

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

October 1, 2019 Broadcast: 'The Rohingya Genocide', Rebecca Hamilton

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Use Of Force In Humanitarian Crises: Addressing The Limitations Of U.N. Security Council Authorization, Paul Williams, Sophie Pearlman

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The original 2001 United Nations (UN) codification of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) granted the UN Security Council exclusive control over authorizing use of force in sovereign states. Unfortunately, as demonstrated over the past 20 years, the need for humanitarian intervention has not changed and the use of force in the name of humanitarian intervention has not always occurred even when the need for such intervention was dire. When the UN Security Council is deadlocked, and a humanitarian crisis is at hand, it is necessary to have a means of using low-intensity military force to prevent mass atrocity crimes. In …

Manufactured Emergencies, Robert Tsai

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Emergencies are presumed to be unusual affairs, but the United States has been in one state of emergency or another for the last forty years. That is a problem. The erosion of democratic norms has led to not simply the collapse of the traditional conceptual boundary between ordinary rule and emergency governance, but also the emergence of an even graver problem: the manufactured crisis. In an age characterized by extreme partisanship, institutional gridlock, and technological manipulation of information, it has become exceedingly easy and far more tempting for a President to invoke extraordinary power by ginning up exigencies. To reduce …

Who Owns The Rules Of War In Today's Post-Post-Cold War?, Kenneth Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Professor Gabriella Blum's The Paradox of Power observes that international humanitarian law (IHL) has been in a long. term evolution toward putting the principle of "humanitarianism" and civilian protection at its normative and legal center. The Lecture (on which this essay is a commentary) identifies several reasons for this, in particular (within and across liberal democratic societies) social acceptance of IHL as law but also as socially internalized norms that give IHL broad moral legitimacy. Accepting The Paradox of Power's main propositions as cor rect, this Commentary extends its account in several ways. First, The Paradox of Power's combination of …

Preparing To Commit Domestic Terrorist Activity: Does The United States Have Adequate Tools To Stop This?, Diane Webber

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Article 36 Weapons Review & Autonomous Weapons Systems: Supporting An International Review Standard, Ryan Poitras

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Peace Vs. Justice Debate And The Syrian Crisis, Paul Williams, Lisa Dicker, C. Danae Paterson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Peace negotiators often face the difficult decision of whether to pursue peace at the potential cost of achieving justice, or to pursue justice at the potential cost of achieving near term peace. There are abiding ethical and moral debates surrounding this tension between peace and justice. In Syria—where the death toll has exceeded 470,000, 11 million have been displaced, and there are over 14,000 documented cases of torture to the point of death—the peace versus justice debate is a living dilemma with which negotiators are currently grappling. This article strives to examine a timely facet of this multidimensional puzzle: how …

Blog: Justice Requires Enforcement, Especially For The Gravest Acts Of Torture Conducted By The United States In The Aftermath Of 9/11, Saadia Khan

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Blood Antiquities: Addressing A Culture Of Impunity In The Antiquities Market, Paul Williams, Christin Coster

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

For decades, parties to conflicts have used the cover of war to destroy and loot cultural property and antiquities for financial gain and symbolic victory. The “blood antiquities” excavated in conflict areas and sold mostly in western markets fuel not only continued conflict, but also (as in cases such as Syria and Iraq) terrorism that can reach around the world. The culture of impunity for both buyers and sellers of antiquities allows the blood-antiquities trade to thrive.

A robust international legal framework does exist to ensure accountability for the destruction of cultural heritage. Because looting is a major cause of …

Until We Achieve Universal Peace: Implications Of The International Law Commission’S Draft Articles On The “Effects Of Armed Conflict On Treaties”, Lauren Dudley

American University National Security Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Applying The Ucmj To Contractors In Contingency Operations, Adam R. Pearlman

American University National Security Law Brief

No abstract provided.