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A Practical Perspective On Attacking Armed Groups, Brigadier General R. Patrick Huston

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, I will describe the three questions I ask and highlight some of the practical problems that can arise when we answer each of the three questions. After that, I will move on to a discussion of how organized armed groups are treated under the LOAC, and how that treatment is--and should remain--different from how civilians are treated when they directly participate in hostilities. I consider this distinction to be the most important part of the discussion about targeting persons in today's conflicts, but I note that this key concept is sometimes misunderstood or misapplied, so it plays …