Military, War, and Peace Commons^™

A Structural Solution To Africa’S Wayward Presidents, Devin K. Joshi

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The current crisis in the Ivory Coast unfortunately resembles a number of crises in Western and Central Africa over the last few decades. Whereas the international community has generally been more willing to intervene in Europe and the Middle East, there has been a tendency to “wait and watch” while humanitarian crises unfold in middle Africa. In the last several years, as in the Ivory Coast right now, however, global awareness of the brutality of such crises has expanded tremendously.

The Material Support Prosecution And Foreign Policy, Wadie E. Said

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pandora’S Box Of Humanitarian Intervention, Edzia Carvalho

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“The Case for Intervention in the Ivory Coast” reminded me of the discussion that my undergraduate students had during the previous academic term on the conundrums surrounding humanitarian intervention. They innately responded to the intense suffering of individuals and groups facing gross human rights violations and initially argued that inaction in the face of suffering cannot be justified on any grounds. However, with their international relations hats on, many of them soon realized that putting an end to such a state of affairs is not as easy or straightforward as they had hoped.

A Rights-Based Approach To Global Injustice, Brooke Ackerly

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Is reflection on global injustice part of the everyday lives of those who live in global privilege? Or does privilege let us wait to raise concerns about justice only when the media bring the graphic images of genocide and tragedy to our family rooms?

March Roundtable: Libya And The Responsibility To Protect, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

Article under review: “It’s Time to Intervene” by Shadi Hamid. Slate. February 23 2011.

I Will Survive, Robert Funk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Academics do not often quote 70s disco tunes. At least not in print. But if there is one thing that has been striking about the events in Libya in recent weeks—and indeed looking back over decades—it is the sheer ability of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to survive. He is, perhaps with Fidel Castro, the world’s greatest survivor. He has indeed learned how to carry on.

Is It Really Time To Intervene In Libya?, Christina Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Shadi Hamid, in “It’s Time to Intervene,” suggests that the international community—specifically, the United States, the United Nations, and NATO—must intervene in Libya because Muammar Gaddafi has declared that he is ready and willing to slaughter his own people if his survival depends on it. The author considered Gaddafi’s speech otherwise “bizarre” and “incoherent.”

Feminism And Democracy, Louis Edgar Esparza

Human Rights & Human Welfare

After work on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks walked onto a bus that was to take her home that night. She ended up on a trip to jail instead, for refusing to give her seat to a white passenger. The event triggered resistance to bus segregation, the founding of the Montgomery Improvement Association, and the election of the then-unknown Dr. Martin Luther King as its leader. The success of the campaign is an integral battle in our historical retellings of the US African American Civil Rights Movement. Fewer recount the sexual harassment against black women by white …

We Do Indeed Reap What We Sow, Walter Lotze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When violence first broke out in Tunisia in January 2011, few observers would have predicted that waves of unrest would engulf North Africa and the Arab world. When demonstrations swiftly spread to Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Jordan, observers hastened to place bets on which regime would be the next to fall. That Hosni Mubarak would be felled next came perhaps as no surprise; Egypt had for years been on a knife’s edge, liberalizing and modernizing society while closing all space for political and social participation. Most analysts then turned their attention to Sudan, Yemen, and Bahrain, predicting that …

Rule Of Law For Whom? Strengthening Rule Of Law As A Solution To Sexual Violence In The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ryan S. Lincoln

Articles

This article suggests that programs designed to strengthen the rule of law in general are unlikely to be effective against the widespread problem of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I argue that while weak rule of law perpetuates sexual violence, only rule of law programs designed specifically with respect to the needs, risks, and cultural norms pertaining to Congolese women can help curb this problem. The article begins with a brief history of conflict in the Great Lakes region of Africa to provide context for a discussion of the scope of sexual violence in the eastern …

Obama And Libya, Benjamin G. Davis

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Obama's Africa Policy On Human Rights, Use Of Force And Humanitarian Intervention: In Whose Interest, Vincent O. Nmehielle, John-Mark Iyi

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Gender Jurisprudence Of The Special Court For Sierra Leone: Progress In The Revolutionary United Front Judgments, Valerie Oosterveld

Law Publications

No abstract provided.

Seductive Drones: Learning From A Decade Of Lethal Operations, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The world’s fleets of unmanned combat vehicles (UCVs) are growing exponentially. This contribution aims to raise awareness that the very existence of UCV technology may well be lowering the inhibitions to kill. At least two sets of data indicate a problem: First, we have evidence from psychological studies that killing at a distance using unmanned launch vehicles may lower the inhibition to kill on the part of operators. Second, we have a decade of evidence of US presidents deploying military force where such force was unlikely to be used prior to the development of UCVs. This evidence indicates that the …

Can Congress Make A President Step Up A War?, Charles Tiefer

All Faculty Scholarship

May Congress use its appropriation power to direct the President to step up a war? When Congress uses its spending power for intensifying a war-stepping it up, pressing it more aggressively-against the resistance of a "less hawkish" Commander in Chief, who wins?

This Article posits differences of view in the 2010s toward the Afghanistan war as a way to revisit, generally, the history of constitutional disputes over war-related appropriation riders. Describing the differences in very simplistic terms, a "hawkish" opposition in Congress may gain political strength at any time, such as in 2010 or 2014, not necessarily because of the …

Contextualizing Sexual Violence Committed During The War On Terror: A Historical Overview Of International Accountability, Ryan S. Lincoln

Articles

No abstract provided.

Guy Lancaster On Genocide: A Normative Account. By Larry May. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 283 Pp., Guy Lancaster

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Genocide: A Normative Account. By Larry May. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 283 pp.

Humanitarian Intervention, The Responsibility To Protect, And Confused Legitimacy, Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect: Who Should Intervene? By James Pattison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. 284 pp.

and

Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction. By Aidan Hehir. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 303pp.

Security Now: Addressing The Needs Of Darfur’S Children, Nicole Judd

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the Darfur region of Sudan, over 2.3 million children have been affected by the ongoing genocide (UNICEF 2008). Unlike their adult counterparts, children are impacted more severely by the consequences of warfare as they are undergoing a fragile developmental process. While each one of the affected children has had their basic human rights violated in some form, the narrative of trauma differs between groups. Sexually-exploited girls, boy soldiers, unaccompanied children, and those who remain in under-resourced camps have experienced the protracted violence in unique ways. To mitigate the effects of war, each group should receive individualized humanitarian assistance as …

When Men Are Harmed: Feminism, Queer Theory, And Torture At Abu Ghraib, Aziza Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article I explore the assertions of "anti-imperialist" feminist scholars who critique "imperial feminism" for its support of the war on terror (WOT). I bring into this analysis the proposition by queer theorists that feminist reliance on male/ female subordination has the potential to not only obscure harm in times of war but also to perpetuate it. As a case study, I focus on the Abu Ghraib prison photos that depict, in part, female soldiers torturing male Iraqi prisoners. In conducting this analysis, I reveal the analytical limitations of dominance and cultural feminists, particularly with regard to male harm …

Child Soldiers And The Duty Of Nations To Protect Children From Participation In Armed Conflict, Luz E. Nagle

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article advocates for enhanced international cooperation and stricter enforcement mechanisms to protect child soldiers, emphasizing the need to address both legal and societal challenges to end their exploitation in conflicts.

Occupied Or Not: The Question Of Gaza's Legal Status After The Israeli Disengagement, Solon Solomon

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

In September 2005, Israel withdrew its army and dismantled all of its settlements in the Gaza Strip, claiming that Gaza's occupation had come to an end. Yet Israel did retain control over Gaza's border crossings, aerial and water space; leading to claims by the Palestinian side as well as some international scholars that the Israeli occupation had not come to an end. The following note will examine these arguments and will take the position that the current status of the Gaza Strip is a sui generis one, where positive law, applied in globo, cannot provide an adequate approach. As …

Examining The International Judicial Function: International Courts As Dispute Resolvers, Anna Spain

Publications

This article examines the judicial function of international courts by considering both what it is and what it ought to be. The article identifies and describes two distinct functions - dispute settlement and peace promotion - and explores the tensions that exist in pursuing these two aims. It then introduces a third way of understanding the international judicial function that respects international courts’ traditional role as dispute settlers while allowing for their more engaged and proactive function as peacemakers. This third approach conceptualizes that the role of international courts is to resolve disputes. Doing so requires understanding courts as entities …

Repair Versus Rejuvenation: The Condition Of Vaginas As A Proxy For The Societal Status Of Women, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

A Hypothetical Postulate For The Polemic Of Extraordinary Rendition Vis-A-Vis The Paradigm Of Asymmetric Warfare, John C. Duncan, Jr.

Journal Publications

This article presents a controversial hypothetical approach to a side of the polemic regarding extraordinary rendition. War is not always controlled by rules, fairness, or ethics. The United States would prefer the foregoing if forced to go to war, but the enemy may not follow the same approach. As a result, the United States becomes hampered by unilaterally self-imposed rules and standards. Conceivably, we could fail to achieve our military objective because of the enemy's adherence to a very different approach and beliefs regarding warfare. Were we to have the privilege of fighting under relatively similar rules with the other …

A Lesson From The Holocaust Restitution Movement For Armenians: Generate Momentum To Secure Restitution, Vartges Saroyan

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Note proceeds in five parts. Part I provides a historical background of the events prior to and during the Armenian Genocide, and the claims arising out of the Genocide. Part II discusses the status of Genocide restitution and the roadblocks that continue to prevent widespread recovery. Part III explains the timeline of the Holocaust restitution movement and how advocates for restitution were finally able to have some success. Part IV proposes that Genocide-era claims be sought not only by filing lawsuits, but also by creating momentum through negotiation and other principles of ADR. Part V concludes by reiterating the …

Indefinite Detention Under The Laws Of War, Chris Jenks, Eric Talbot Jensen

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The recent acquittal of the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to stand trial in U.S. federal court on all but one of the 286 charges he faced stemming from the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa has reinvigorated the discussion on indefinite detention under the laws of war. While the issue has been raised in the past, the discussion hasn’t extended beyond stating that the law of war, or law of armed conflict (LOAC) as it is often called, provides a legal basis for detention, including detention for the duration of hostilities. In fact, the Obama Administration has made …

Kimberly Lanegran On Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone’S Revolutionary United Front. By Myriam Denov. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 234 Pp., Kimberly Lanegran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front. By Myriam Denov. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 234 pp.

Donald W. Jackson On Prisoners Of America’S Wars: From The Early Republic To Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp., Donald W. Jackson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp.

American Muslim Minorities: The New Human Rights Struggle, Ashley Moore

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ramifications of the attacks of September 11, 2001 are felt throughout the United States. However, no minority community is as deeply affected as the American-Muslim minority. Since the attacks on the World Trade Center, Muslims residing in the United States have experienced violations of economic and political liberties, as well as ongoing social discrimination. Media stereotypes and government legislation continually exacerbate these human rights abuses and entrench institutional, social, and economic discrimination deeper in American society. At the heart of this discrimination are clear misunderstandings about Islam and those who practice the faith. In an effort to combat these …