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Full-Text Articles in Military, War, and Peace
A Rose By Any Other Name: How The United States Charges Its Service Members For Violating The Laws Of War, Chris Jenks
A Rose By Any Other Name: How The United States Charges Its Service Members For Violating The Laws Of War, Chris Jenks
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
This chapter examines the US practice of not charging its service members with war crimes. The chapter briefly explains how the United States asserts criminal jurisdiction over its service members before turning to how the US military reports violations of the laws of war. It then sets out the US methodology for charging such violations as applied to its service members, and compares this methodology to that applied to those tried by military commissions. The chapter then discusses the varied meanings of the term ‘war crimes’ and the way in which the 1949 Geneva Conventions can provide a benchmark against …
Sexual Assault As A Law Of War Violation & U.S. Service-Members’ Duty To Report, Chris Jenks, Jay Morse
Sexual Assault As A Law Of War Violation & U.S. Service-Members’ Duty To Report, Chris Jenks, Jay Morse
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
This Essay considers when U.S. service members deployed to Afghanistan are obligated to report allegations of sexual assault by Afghan security forces against Afghan nationals to the U.S. military. The answer requires applying a longstanding Department of Defense policy for reporting law of war violations and hinges on whether there is a nexus between the sexual assault and the armed conflict in Afghanistan. Although recent attention on this topic has brought much-needed visibility to sexual assault in conflict zones, the overbroad assertions of the media and the military have unfortunately fostered more confusion than clarity. This Essay does not attempt …
The Janus Moon Rising - Why 2014 Heralds United States' Detention Policy On A Collision Course...With Itself, Chris Jenks
The Janus Moon Rising - Why 2014 Heralds United States' Detention Policy On A Collision Course...With Itself, Chris Jenks
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
2014 will serve as a test of the United States’ claims that its detention policy is consistent with the law of armed conflict (LOAC). If, as President Obama has repeatedly stated, U.S. involvement in the armed conflict in Afghanistan will end this year, then any LOAC based detention of belligerents linked solely to that conflict ends as well. That should mean the release or transfer of members of the Taliban currently detained at Guantanamo. It won’t.
Agency Of Risk: The Competing Balance Between Protecting Military Forces And The Civilian Population During Counterinsurgency Operations In Afghanistan, Chris Jenks
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Using both the International Security Assistance Force’s tactical directive on use of force in Afghanistan and doctrinal concepts from the US military’s counterinsurgency manual, this chapter explores the allocation of risk between the military force and Afghan civilian population. The chapter first reviews civilian and military casualty figures and then uses those numbers as a touchstone against which to consider each group’s perception of the risk they face.
Not Child's Play: Revisiting The Law Of Child Soldiers, Chris Jenks
Not Child's Play: Revisiting The Law Of Child Soldiers, Chris Jenks
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
This brief commentary discusses child soldiers in general and Omar Khadr, a 15 yr old whom the United States military captured during armed conflict in Afghanistan, in particular. I suggest the conversation should be broadened and to move past misperceptions of the applicable law and norms concerning detention and prosecution of child belligerents.
The Law And Policy Implications Of 'Baited Ambushes' Utilizing Enemy Dead And Wounded, Chris Jenks
The Law And Policy Implications Of 'Baited Ambushes' Utilizing Enemy Dead And Wounded, Chris Jenks
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
When a state's armed forces is engaged in hostilities, how long after an engagement or firefight before the international humanitarian law requirement to search for and care for the wounded and find and bury the dead is triggered? This military practitioner's note discusses the legal and policy implications of 'baited ambushes,' the practice of utilizing wounded and dead enemies as the bait for follow on forces, which are then engaged.